The Fated Fight
by XIIIroxasKOD
Summary: Naruto must find a teacher to prepare him for the finals of the chunin exam, unfortunately Kakashi is going on a sharingan only training trip. Kurenai (and others) to the rescue! Expect crazy stuff to happen. childish, slightly ooc!Naruto. dat you Minato! sexy no jutsu henge weirdness ! no pairings.
1. Prologue: day zero

The fated fight

Prologue

Today had been a rather troubling day for one Kakashi Hatake. The thought of what his prized student would soon be forced to fight weighed heavily on his mind. Gaara would kill Sasuke the instant they went at it, and insane tendencies aside, Gaara was extremely strong. It would be a tough task but Kakashi thought he just might be able to give Sasuke a fighting chance, the only problem was...

"Please, please train me Kakashi-sensei! I need to get stronger to give that neji teme what's coming to him." Naruto's bright hopeful eyes looked up at him, and guilt crushed down on Kakashi's gut. He hadn't. Thought much of what he would do with Naruto's training. Kakashi did not at all expect two of his students to make it through the prelims, least of them Naruto.

Now it must be said, for a guy, Naruto does a really really REALLY good rendition of puppy dog eyes. Kakashi knew he would need to do something to help the child, the question was what. The boy was still barely genin level if that. Naruto scaled a solid 0% in the chances he would be chosen for a promotion, and it would be impossible to train him to the point where he could beat Neji. In short, as far as this chunin exam went, Naruto was a lost cause.

"maa, maa Naruto. I am sorry but I need to focus on training Sasuke, why don't you..." Kakashi broke off as if deep in thought. A half a minuet Later a special jonin walks in whom Kakashi waves over.

"Ebisu," Kakashi began "This is Naruto I need you to take over his training for a month."Kakashi turned to Naruto " Naruto this is-"

" I know who he is Kakashi- sensei!" Naruto exclaimed cutting Kakashi off. Naruto, for his part, looked to be fighting to keep his face from looking down right furious, trouble was he was loosing.

"good then, you know each other." Kakashi. Replied happily, much to Naruto 's chagrin.

Kakashi buried his face into his book, knowing that if he looked Naruto in the eyes he'd loose his conviction. This however only gave Naruto the impression that Kakashi was disinterested in his plight. Naruto knew the man already and had nothing good to say about him. Naruto had a thick skin, but the way Ebisu looked at him, the things he called him. Well it wasn't anything he hadn't heard before, but Naruto knew Ebisu actually knew his name and could pick him out in a crowed, that was different from getting jeered at by faceless passersby.

"What could I possibly learn from someone who doesn't respect me?" Naruto turned toward the door and began to leave. " I'll just find my a teacher for myself." Kakashi placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

" I think you'll find you can learn a lot from Ebisu. Why don't you give him a try?" Naruto didn't turn to look at Kakashi, instead he began trying to brush Kakashi's hand off to continue his walk. "Naruto! stop acting like a child! Ebisu is more then capable of teaching you the skills you're lacking."

"Don't bother Kakashi if it doesn't want to be taught I won't be able to teach it. It obviously doesn't understand that the Uchiha is of the utmost importance." Ebisu stated.

"I guess not. He always did overestimate his importance." Kakashi agreed halfheartedly. He assumed Ebisu was trying to geode Naruto, and was more focused on planing his training with Sasuke. Kakashi didn't pay any attention to the conversation which happened to be a big mistake.

Naruto's eyes stung. His sensei agreed with that? Agreed with what that man said? Surely not, surely his sensei would pick up the fact the man was insulting him and take his side. Maybe Kakashi would get him a different teacher one that didn't hate and look down on him. No his sensei had agreed with that man and his obvious jabs at Naruto's humanity. White hot tears threatened to drench his face so he turned away and ran.

He ran, and ran, and ran. Ran till he wasn't sure where he was. Till he fully escape the presence of the jonin. Ran till he could no longer contain his tears. And even though he'd promised himself not to, oh he'd promised himself not to let anyone get under his skin like that, not to let anyone bring him to tears again, not allow anyone the chance to hurt him. He broke down and cried in a back ally he'd never seen before. His sensei's harsh and maybe unintentional words cut deep into his already low self esteem.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been there nor was he sure where 'there' was exactly. Only one thing to do, he got up and began trying to navigate his way back to his apartment. Naruto henged into his clothed sexy jutsu minus whiskers and walked into the nearest building to ask for directions.

* * *

The nearest building however was a bar, a bar that that now contained one drunk Anko Mitarashi and one distraught genjutsu mistress.

Kurenai yuhi noticed the moment she walked in, most jonin level shinobi can tell when there vision is being affected. The henge had long blonde hair and was slightly taller then average for someone so young. Her clothes covering her wholesome cleavage. Her wide baby blue eyes shown with some positive emotion Kurenai couldn't quite place. she watched her walk up to the bar tender and talk to him for a short while.

Normally Kurenai would have paid the henged child no mind however two things came to Kurenai's mind. Firstly there were foreign Shinobi in the village,secondly, and most disturbingly, the henge was good, really good. Normally Kurenai could see through henges, being a master of genjutsu allows you to do that sort of thing, but this henge was Jonin level at least. If this this person was this good at henges they should have known that a kid walking into a bar would attract attention, if this person had applied an adult henge Kurenai might not have noticed them at all.

Her interest peaked Kurenai got up and followed the girl out. She walked slowly looking around from time to time, several times she doubled back seemingly at random. The girl was lost. Kurenai waited hidden nearby while the girl ducked into yet another store

Kurenai spent some time following the girl finally coming to a rundown apartment building, which meant the person was probably a native. So Kurenai began to ask herself, why the henge? Not to buy booze, not to hide from enemy shinobi. So why? Did the person simply feel more comfortable in this form? That was possible but unlikely.

_Poof_

And then it made sense of course that boy would have reason to hide, even in his home village he was hiding from enemies, civilian and shinobi alike.

Kurenai could make out tear stained cheeks and puffy eyes distinctive of someone who just spent a very long time crying. Kurenai jumped down from her perch landing next to the boy. She felt she should do something she didn't know what exactly but she had to try. "Congratulations on making it to the finals Naruto."

If Naruto was startled he hid it well, instead allowing a small hesitant smile to form before frowning. "You aren't upset I beat Kiba are you?"

"No not really." Kurenai took a moment to study the blonde. His torn and ripped jumpsuit had obviously not been changed since the end of the exam, his hair dirty and unkempt. Blood stained parts of his clothes and visible body was bruised and cut up. "You worked hard and beat him fairly."

The boy moved to enter his home, then he stopped and turned. "Kurenai-sensei?"

"yes Naruto."

"would you- um, could -um" the boy paused for a moment. "couldyoutrainmefortheexam?" the words sped out of the blondes mouth so fast that Kurenai didn't quite catch them.

"what was that Naruto?"

The boy tried again, this time slower and quieter, almost a whisper. "since your students aren't going to the finals, do you think, well I was wondering if you could find some extra time in your schedule to train me...a little?" The child asked hesitantly.

Kurenai didn't have any students in the finals, that was true, Shino being trained by his family and all. It kinda pissed her off that Naruto didn't recognise this fact but she cut him some slack. Hinata was in the hospital so that meant no out of the village missions for her team. She definitely had some extra time to train him, but...

"I'm sure you'll be too busy with the training Kakashi has for you?" as soon as she said it she knew it wasn't true. The blonde turned his face from her and mumbled something quietly. Kurenai moved to look at the boys face. His face looked downcast and miserable.

"Well if you're sure you won't be too busy I guess I could spare some time to train you." Naruto's face lit up with excitement. "But you'll have to do everything I tell you, no matter what okay."

"Yeah! Okay!" Naruto hastily agreed pumping his fist in the air and jumping a few times for added affect.

"All right then meet me tomorrow morning 7 o'clock at training ground 13 so I can assess your skills." Her new student was no longer able to contain his excitement, and jumped towards her to hug her, which ended up more like a head butt given the height difference. Kurenai slowly pried the clingy boy from her stomach. "I mean it when I say don't be late. If your late I'm not waiting around for you."

"Yes sensei!" the boy agreed happily. Opening the door to his run down abode and steeled himself for another cold shower.

End Prologue


	2. Day One: Part One

The Fated Fight

Day one part one

A young boy, age twelve entered the training ground. The area was beautiful, plateaus like a staircase leading up a hill surrounding a stream and small waterfall, the plateaus were covered in grass with beautiful wild flowers dotting the landscape. The place filled Naruto with a sense of warmth, which he soaked in gladly.

Naruto looked around for his new sensei who apparently wasn't here yet. That was okay though he was at least a half an hour early. he stood admiring his surroundings for a spell, and stretched his arms wide.

Seeing no reason to stand around uncomfortably, Naruto climbed his way up the hill sitting down at the top and waited.

Line

Kurenai hadn't expected the boy so early but didn't see any problem with getting an early start. Kurenai had set up a genjutsu around the grounds. Test one genjutsu and so far... yeah not going so well. Kurenai watched the desolate training ground 13 as Naruto looked at and picked several nonexistent flowers. She had intentionally given this genjutsu quite a few flaws, but Naruto was still blissfully unaware. This was going to be harder than expected.

Kurenai moved in closer to Naruto, creeping silently towards him, the genjutsu hiding her every movement. Naruto stirred from his spot on the ground, looking around confusedly before realization dawned on him and he looked straight at her. "Kurenai-sensei?" he called hesitantly.

Kurenai, despite being frustrated at her student for not recognizing the genjutsu, found herself impressed that Naruto could sense her. This sixth sense that Naruto exhibited was rare and took upward of two decades to cultivate, but Naruto had it naturally. How? Confused as to the origin of his ability, but happy about it all the same. Kurenai canceled her genjutsu.

Naruto looked at her for a half a second before looking around and standing up. "It was a genjutsu? It was a genjutsu and I didn't notice?" he said disheartened. A full area genjutsu, how did he not notice? He'd really wanted to impress Kurenai-sensei, but it seemed he'd already failed. Only two minuets after training started and he'd already failed. What if she decided he wasn't worth her time?

"Shinobi rule number one: always be on guard." Kurenai stated looking at a very upset Naruto.

"Don't worry about it Naruto we'll work on it."

Naruto perked up for a moment, '_She doesn't seem too upset with me'_ and then the dejected look returned. "all those flowers, aww man."

Kurenai blinked. "flowers?" Naruto just then seemed to notice what he said, and turned the oddest shade of red.

Naruto looked bashful. "Yeah some of those species are really rare and worth a lot if you know where to take theme..." Naruto said quietly.

_'First he is upset, then he's_ _not, then he's_ _upset again. Wash,_ _rinse,_ _repeat." _Kurenai thought '_jeez this kid is bipolar!'_

"Hey! Sensei what are we doing next?" Naruto asked excitedly, a rekindled determined light in his eyes. Eager to make a good impression on his new instructor.

_'And now his bubbly side is back. This is going to_ _be a long month.'_ Kurenai thought, already trying to calculate how much sake it was going to take to get her through a month of the blonde's mood swings.

"Well Naruto I thought that next we could try a short taijutsu spar, if that's okay with you." despite the way it was phrased, it wasn't really a question. Kurenai dropped into a ready position and clearly expected Naruto to do the same.

Naruto dropped into his taijutsu stance, and immediately Kurenai noticed that this wasn't the style taught at the academy and if it were any other style Kurenai didn't recognize it. The blonde looked cute with his arms spread far too wide and his form rigid, like he was trying to make himself look bigger than he was.

As they began moving Kurenai observed that the boy moved with all the grace of a drunken brawler. Kurenai could see it, she could see the flexibility and versatility the child had even with his current fighting style hindering him. Like finding a diamond in the rough Kurenai could find him a style to accentuate the grace and balance she could tell he was capable of.

They ended a spar after about six minuets. Kurenai had seen enough to know that his taijutsu was going to require a lot of work as well.

"very good Naruto." Kurenai lied. "though I think I know a taijutsu style which would suit you better." Kurenai said with what she hoped sounded like enthusiasm.

"But sensei that spar only lasted a couple minuets, I still have a bunch of other moves I haven't shown you yet!" The blonde said with what Kurenai was coming to know as his 'bubbly voice'.

Kurenai contemplated briefly while deciding the best way to break the news to the kid. "well you see, Naruto, you're taijutsu style isn't one I've ever seen, and well... it's pretty terrible."

"Oh." The blonde responded dumbly "but that's the standard academy style isn't it?"

Kurenai contemplated his words as if confused by what he was saying. _'That was most certainly __not_ _the academy style, but he thinks it is.' _Even if he was just really bad at the style or hadn't paid attention in learning it there should have been at least a passing resemblance to the academy style. This style was something else entirely.

An uncontrollable rage grew from inside of Kurenai. _'so this style was some sicko's idea of a joke' _a darker thought came to Kurenai's mind. "Naruto! Run though a couple of those forms again!" Kurenai barked.

Naruto worriedly complied. He moved from form to form for about thirty seconds, which was about how long it took for Kurenai's face to change from 'very upset' to 'Down Right Furious'. At which time Naruto stopped and tried to figure out what he had done to anger his sensei.

_'No this form wasn't a joke, it was a well thought out style created in an attempt to get him killed!'_ Kurenai was brought out of her thoughts by a timid and apologetic voice.

"I'm-I'm sorry sensei maybe I didn't pay as much attention to the forms as I should have." Which had, most likely, saved his life.

Kurenai forced herself to calm down. Naruto looked like he was expecting to be hit. His face turned to the ground. _'I've probably just scared the hell out of him.' _

"It's fine Naruto I'm not mad at you. Just promise me you'll never use that style again." Kurenai said attempting to reassure the child.

Naruto's spirits were about as low as they could get, it seemed he was so bad a taijutsu he was a disgrace to the style. All hope of impressing his new sensei was truly gone. At this rate he'd be lucky if she didn't drop him as a student. He felt like one big disappointment. Taijutsu and genjutsu that left...

"alright Naruto tell me what ninjutsu you know." Kurenai said. Looking at him expectantly, this would be a good chance to lighten his mood.

Kurenai looked at Naruto so expectantly that he got the feeling she wanted him to go on and on about the ninjutsu he knew, like she predicted this to be a 2 hour speech. Naruto just wanted to curl up and die, suddenly his skills didn't seem like that much to brag about.

"well" Naruto began quietly. "I'm proficient in the replacement jutsu, as well as shadow clones."

"go on." Kurenai said

"well that's about it sensei..." Naruto said. He felt so worthless, so inadequate.

"I'm pretty sure I saw you use henge quite well." Kurenai said reassuringly

Naruto was very quite in his response "I-um..." the rest was said to low for Kurenai to hear

"Speak up Naruto, no need to be so shy."

"Well it's just people women to hit me when I talk about this technique..." Naruto said displaying a lot of distrust and apprehension.

"Naruto I promise I'm not going to hit you." _'The hell is this kid talking about'_

"Well...it's called the sexy jutsu, it's the only henge I'm really good at." Naruto said growing a bit more confident. "basically I henge into a naked girl and distract my enemy while I attack them..."

Kurenai thought for a moment, to be good at only one henge in particular took a lot of time and effort. To perfect the form that Kurenai saw yesterday it must have taken weeks.

"It's also how I passed the henge test, I would use the sexy jutsu to distract Iruka-sensei from the fact that I never showed him any other transformation."

Kurenai mentally agreed that something like that would be very effective, crude and obscene sure, but it was affective. How could she blame the kid for making use of an advantage that most all kunoichi already used. Sure kunoichi weren't exactly naked, but if the enemy already know he's a guy then your going to need more then a little skin to distract them. Use any advantage you can get, thats what shinobi do.

"Ingenious, good thinking Naruto." Kurenai told Naruto. She didn't have to agree morally to see that this was a good strategy she stood up, stretched and walked towards the stream. "take off your jacket, and anything else you don't want to get wet. I'm going to teach you to walk on water."

Naruto removed his jacket carefully and set it down on the ground slowly, his tools, shirt, and sandals following shortly there after.

Kurenai walked out onto the water " The key to water walking is to constantly adjust the amount of chakra you apply to the surface of the water" Kurenai waited for question, but none came "You must constantly gauge and adjust the amount of chakra that will be necessary for this." again a pause, this time Naruto nodded his understanding. "Too little chakra and the surface tension won't be maintained under your feet, too much and the energy will upset the water and make small waves." Again a nod of understanding. "All right Naruto, you think you're ready to give it a try?"

"Yeah! I'll master this in one go!" Naruto said enthusiastically taking a few steps onto the water before losing his balance and "ahh" cur plunk. Kurenai sat down next to Naruto's things, her back leaning on the wall of the Plateau behind her. This could take a while, but that was fine. She had given Kiba the day off and Shino was training full time with his clan. She had all day.

LINE

It was the third hour in and still no progress. Kurenai's demeanor had changed from relaxed to contemplative as she watched Naruto intently. There was obviously a problem, but Kurenai was stumped as to what it was. The worst part was the kid hadn't stopped talking the whole time. He talked and he talked and he talked. Kurenai could tell that he talked more of his fear of silence, and that talking to himself probably made him less lonely "Naruto" she called getting his attention "would you make a few shadow clones for me?"

_poof_

Five shadow clones entered the clearing three of them going cur plunk, into the stream. Naruto looked confused. "I used way more chakra then that!" he shouted at his clones. Then Kurenai had a genius idea, an idea that would speed up his training exponentially. However that idea didn't solve there current problem.

Naruto, who was often called a chakra beast was having trouble summoning his chakra, why? Naruto was a chakra beast because of the nine tails, is it an issue with his seal? She decided to take it up with the one person she knew who was skilled in sealing arts.

"Aright Naruto that's enough we're going on a field trip" Kurenai stated picking up Naruto's things and-

"Hey what's this." Kurenai said looking at the words stitched into the inside of Naruto's jacket. The words were:demon, murderer, and worth less.

Naruto looked exposed and vulnerable, and Kurenai could tell that if she didn't say the right words than Naruto would never fully trust her.

"Naruto, do you like this jacket"

"y-yes" Kurenai looked at him for a moment waiting. Then he said "No, no I-I hate it, but that's all they would sell me."

"well I hate this jacket too" Kurenai through the jacket on the ground in the opposite direction of Naruto and preformed a incendiary jutsu on it.

" oops, I'm sorry my hand must have slipped. Don't worry I'll buy you another one." Naruto grinned at her.

" Sensei, I can buy it myself, if you'll come with me." Naruto said, his 'bubbly' reappearing once more. "But since we're going in town, do you think we can pick up some weapons? They don't sell them to people in henges..."

"Naruto you don't mean to tell me you do all your shopping while henged" Kurenai asked

" They won't sell to me otherwise, my sexy jutsu is my only way to get decent prices on food, otherwise its over priced and gone bad..."

Kurenai was once again down right furious. People had tried to starve the kid to death, or at least give him food poisoning. She looked at his face he was still a child and so young, but forced to endure so much. 'how could anyone do that to such a cute little kid. How could anyone think he was a monster when he was always optimistic, and wore his feelings on his sleeve.'

" yeah I'm okay with stopping to get some weapons Naruto."

End day one part one

**So yeah my version of Naruto is OOC, I know but he's twelve still and well, what kid doesn't have insecurities about what people think about them. I'm going to wright Naruto with a more child like personality, at least for now. Anyway let me know what you think.**

**PS: It always made sense to me that Naruto would do all his shopping in a henge and while he's henged he won't have the same body proportions as he normally does... **


	3. Day one: Part two

**So I've got a kinda self imposed schedule I've come up with and figured I'd let you all know about it, to keep myself from getting lazy, like a certain troublesome person we know. so here is how it's gonna be I will update twice on the weekends and three times during the week. I plan the chapters to be a minimum of 1400 words, so even though there are gonna be a lot of chapters they are all gonna be really short. Still tough thats about 7000 words per weak so I think that's a good amount. It's easier for my add riddled brain to wright in many short bursts rather then one long one. also just because I'm writing the same number of chapters each week don't expect them to come on the same days each week. that is all, now onto the story!**

Day one: part two

Anko felt a chill dance along her spine as she watched her best friend walk down the street in her direction. Most days Anko was overjoyed when she saw her best friend. Most days Anko would somehow get Kurenai to go along with her to a bar, or movie, or where ever. Today, however the sight of her friend made her want to run and hide and she didn't know why.

Kurenai walked towards her long time friend, Naruto close at her side wearing his new black pants with orange accents along the sides going up his legs. He, surprisingly, really did like orange. He also wore a pair of black fingerless gloves with metal protectors on the back of his hand. He had chosen a plane black long sleeve shirt which hugged his body, not a jacket, saying that his chunin vest wouldn't fit over a jacket. Kurenai watched her knew pupil intently, the kid seemed so self confident it was easy to overlook the mental he tried so hard to hide.

"Anko!" Kurenai called. "We have some we need to talk with you about." Anko was taken aback for a moment _'we?' _she looked at Kurenai for a long while before her eyes moved to rest on her fellow pariah. When Anko had been feeling compunction for not helping him ever since she met him during the second exam. If anyone in Konoha could understand the 'Monster' it was her, the 'Snake Whore'.

"Well Heloooo there brat!" Anko said in the same craze filled tone she used to frighten genin in the second exam. " Not dead yet I see. Don't worry, we can fix that in due time." she let out a mangled laugh.

It had the desired effect, the kid was now on edge and Kurenai was glaring at he. _'all in a days work'_ Making Kurenai mad was always so much fun, not to mention easy.

"Stop that!" Kurenai snapped. Anko complied putting on a more serious face. "I need your help, I need you to check it." Kurenai said quietly so the people who were glaring at them angrily were unable to hear. As much as Anko loved causing trouble, the mass panic that would follow if those words were said out loud was no laughing matter.

"Ohh, I don't know Kurenai, I'm very busy" Anko lied in an attempt to get another rise out of Kurenai. Said attempt worked easily on her oldest friend.

"Anko quit it, you are coming with us!" Kurenai said grabbing Anko's arm and pulling her. "come on, lets go Naruto."

"jeez I know your getting on in years, Kurenai, but you don't have to act like an old hag." Anko baited, further enraging the red eyed jonin.

Anko waited as the pulled his shirt up tentatively to reveal his slim waist, and began channeling his chakra . His abdomen was thin the seal only barely fit. Anko, given the amount of time she had put into attempting to remove her cursed seal, saw the problem immediately. She crouched down next to the seal and traced he hand across the problem. Someone had put another seal on recently sealing the fox off completely from Naruto. She wondered briefly why Naruto hadn't said anything about it, surely he would know if there was a seal on there he hadn't seen before even if he didn't remember someone putting it on him.

"Kid who messed with your seal?" Anko asked blandly keeping her voice disinterested to show there was no need for panic. More for Kurenai's sake then the kid's. Kurenai exhailed a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding

"I-it was messed with? I-I hadn't noticed." the kid said looking very uncomfortable.

Anko took on a look of understanding and, something else which Kurenai rarely saw in her friend, compassion. "Naruto I know you don't like looking at it, but you should at least try to know what it looks like..."

"It's...easier to pretend that it isn't there if...I don't know what it looks like..." The blonde replied in a mumble. Looking down towards Anko's still crouching form, but not at her. It was clear to both women, he was some where else at the moment. They weren't sure where he was, but the sad and far off look in his eyes told them it wasn't pleasant.

"Alright Naruto" Anko said jarring the child from his thoughts. "This is going to hurt, a lot, you'll probably pass out. Are you ready?" Anko began preparing the chakra in her hand to destroy the second seal.

When the quick nod of affirmation came Anko jabbed her hand into the kid's gut, and as predicted he passed out.

"Anko" Said Kurenai " I have a proposition for you" Hearing this Anko couldn't help but be interested, after all it was usually her that hatched the harebrained schemes to get the two in trouble. She owed it to Kurenai to at least hear her out.

Kurenai picked up, the surprisingly light, Naruto bridal style, so he would be more comfortable. Before beginning a long and tough argument with Anko on the way to drop Naruto off at his apartment.

Naruto awoke just as the first drops of rain began coming down, it was just his luck that it was going to rain tonight. Naruto found himself in his room on his bed. Kurenai sensei must have brought him when he passed out. To his surprise he wasn't alone in the room Anko and Kurenai both were in the room watching him, dark expressions on there faces. Naruto rubbed the 'sleep' from his eyes

"H-hey Anko, Kurenai-sensei what's wrong." Naruto asked hoping to hear something along the lines of 'oh nothing Naruto we were just waiting for you too wake up'.

The question hung in the air for an awkwardly long amount of time, the two older ninja looked at each other having a mental conversation. Naruto wasn't sure what it was about, but Kurenai-sensei seemed like she was trying to convince Anko to do something, which Anko refused, several times.

"You talk in your sleep..." Kurenai began, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"and you cry." Anko added " You said some pretty disturbing stuff."

Naruto looked from Anko to Kurenai, he was mortified. What had he told them? Was it something perverse? "uh.. it was probably just the pain, yeah. I-um, I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Naruto if there is ever anything you want to talk about, Anko and I would be willing to listen." Kurenai said slowly to Naruto, as if trying not to break him.

_ 'ohh shit, it was __that__ kind of disturbing, what exactly did they hear?' _Naruto thought. Out loud though he opted for a "I'm fine sensei really!" Though neither Anko nor Kurenai looked convinced, they dropped the conversation.

"alright Naruto, but if you ever do need to talk promise you'll come find one of us?" Kurenai said.

"yeah, I promise." Naruto replied trying not to look as upset as he felt.

"alright brat, now that we've got that out of the way the three of us can talk about your training!" Anko said loudly. It brightened the mood, If only just a little.

"yeah! Alright, time to talk training!" Naruto said in his 'bubbly' voice, his enthusiasm returning full force.

"Naruto, Anko and I have agreed to train you from 5 A.M. to 3 P.M. , at witch time Anko has to work at T&amp;I and I have jonin duties to attend to. Does that sound alright to you?"

"What am I supposed to do after 3?" Naruto questioned, scratching the back of his head and stretching. He was gonna have to find his deck of cards, no point being bored all night.

"well you can either find someone to oversee your training for that time, or Kurenai and I can give you something to work on for that time." Anko said "then again, you may want to just take the rest of the day off, 10 hours of training is quite a lot for one day. Plus I would recommend going to bed no later then eight, you need your beauty rest after all." Anko finished with a joke, as always.

" I can't just do nothing from 3 till eight!" Naruto said exasperatedly. He needed less time on his hands not more damn it!

"what you do after 3 o'clock is of no concern to us" Kurenai said. Both she and Anko stood from there seats, but when Naruto moved to do the same Kurenai pushed him back onto the bed. "Go to sleep Naruto, sensei's order." Anko and Kurenai let themselves out.

Naruto lamented there on his bed by himself. Typical I break my promise to my sensei after just one day. He got up and searched for his deck of cards. The deck of cards he bought in case of a rainy day. They had become a lot more useful now that he had Shadow clones to play against.

End Day One


	4. Day Two: Full

Day Two:Chapter Two

Kurenai awoke to someone shaking her shoulders, she was sitting in a chair sprawled forward into a book she must have fallen asleep reading. Her mouth was slightly open and her cheek was wet. That thought woke her up. She quickly rubbed her cheek before turning, embarrassed, to the person who woke her up.

Hayate looked uninterested in what Kurenai was doing. This probably to try to make her feel less embarrassed, which , by the way, didn't work. "It's one in the morning Kurenai, you should go home." his voice was concerned, but not overly so. It most certainly wasn't the first time someone fell asleep in the jonin library. It wasn't even the first time she had fallen asleep in the jonin library, strange as it sounded.

Hayate walked off, allowing Kurenai to wake up; gather her thoughts and try to remember why she came here. That was when she noticed three books beside her. She looked at them interested, reading the name would be far easier then trying to remember on her own. She was still extremely tired. The books beside her were entitled: '_The Sixth Sense', 'A Guide to Jinchuuriki', _and _'Shadow clones: A training guide' _. Seeing them Kurenai remembered instantly why she had come here. That kid must have really done a number on her if she was loosing sleep for him. Behind her were eight or so more books all were entry level on there respective subjects, and a perfect to test out the retentive ability of the shadow clones.

Moving from her spot Kurenai collected her things and headed for the door. As she anticipated several jonin were sipping coffee conversing with each other while flipping through books in the lounge area near the entrance. What Kurenai did not anticipate was the tuft of unruly purple hair at a desk in the corner clearly awake and writing feverishly on some sort of note pad. Anko was never in the Jonin lounge, opting to stay away from there ever since she gave up on her work with seals.

Kurenai walked up to her best friend sneakily, trying not to let her know she was there. After all she didn't like people prying into her business not even Kurenai. Kurenai caught a glance of the seal that she was apparently working on, it looked more complex then anything Kurenai had seen Anko working on. "What do you have their?" Kurenai questioned, causing Anko to jump. "getting skittish there Anko?"

Anko looked at her for a long while, as if she was trying to formulate a retort for there usual verbal sparring match. Anko opened her mouth, then closed it. Anko keeping her mouth shut, now that was just unheard of. Anko contemplated another moment, trying to pick just the right words. "Here as you can plainly see we have pure genius!" Anko's face turned sour for a moment. "Or we have the incoherent writings of a stark raving lunatic... I'll let you know when I figure out which it is."

Anko returned to her work, skimming through one book, then another before sighing. She got up and moved to some nearby shelving picking out the book she had appeariently been looking for. "Anko what _is_ it?" Kurenai asked once more exasperated.

"It's a altered version of the cursed seal."

"That's all the explanation your going to give me, isn't it?"

"pretty much, Yeah."

* * *

Naruto finished playing with his clones at about 4:35; he won each and every game. Not that he hadn't lost his fair share too of course. He moved to the bathroom taking a quick shower. He dried himself off and changed before pulling out the small container of coverup he used to apply to the dark bags under his eyes. It wouldn't do to have his sensei know he had disobeyed a direct order.

It wasn't the first time he had used such a trick, but it was the first time he felt bad about it. Naruto could not sleep when it was raining, it was one of the facts of life he had come to grips with. Knowing now what he did, he realized it was the fox within him that hindered his sleep.

It had stopped raining by three but Naruto couldn't let himself fall asleep for fear he might sleep in past five. By ten till five Naruto was out the door and headed for training ground 13.

* * *

"Alright Naruto, lets get started!" Kurenai announced excitedly , greeting Naruto and Anko both. " I want you to create 20 shadow clones."

Naruto did so but was confused as to what he should do with them "Are we gonna spare Sensei, 'cuz I thought you said I shouldn't use my taijutsu anymore?..." Naruto asked as he and his 24 clones gave the two jonin identical confused looks.

"Naruto leave your clones here while you do some physical training with Anko." Kurenai said Anko took off towards training ground 37 to train his physical strength and teach him a new taijutsu style.

"What should we do sensei?" one of the clones said curiously.

"Okay," Kurenai said an air of command coming around her. She brought out her bag filled with her spoils from the jonin library." I want eight of you to grab a book out of here." The eight closest clones came and grabbed a book. "those of you without books should begin practicing the water walking exercise" Kurenai finished pointing to the stream they had used yesterday. The clones all got to work doing there designated tasks.

Kurenai tried to keep herself from thinking about the side effects that so many clones could cause to Naruto's brain. Even though the book she read said it wouldn't have any affect on his brain, Kurenai couldn't help but think about weather or not the book had accounted for the amount of clones a Jinchuuriki could make.

"Sensei..." one of the clones assigned to reading said looking bashful.

"Yes Naruto." Kurenai said. she expected them to ask her questions about what they were reading intermittently, but not so soon. It had barely been five minuets.

"well I-I don't know a lot of these words ." Naruto's clone uttered so quietly it was hardly a whisper. Despite his words it was Kurenai who felt stupid. Kurenai was upset that nobody invested time in making sure Naruto had a decent grasp of vocabulary , but what was worse was that she wasn't surprised. Naruto probably only knew what he taught himself and wasn't familiar with the longer and more complex that were in that book. "that's okay, just read what you can while I go get something to help."

And with that Kurenai got up and made her way over to the stream, telling two of the clones to go sit over by the reading group. To keep them fresh for their new job. She then went to find a dictionary. This was going to be harder then she thought. Oh well, there was a saying about how something only being worth doing when it's difficult.

LINE

The real Naruto found himself in a forest clearing, with actual grass and greenery. Anko was standing there looking at him with a feral grin, and Naruto knew he wasn't going to like what ever they were about to do.

"Alright kid I'm going to teach you a new Taijutsu style." well that was so bad. "By hitting you repeatedly," Oh so that's why she's so happy.

"How will hitting me repeatedly help me learn?!" Naruto shouted. He liked not being covered in black and blue spots, thank you very much.

"I'm going to show you the style's ready stance, from that stance you will be moving your arms in an attempt to block me. In doing so you will be getting a feel for the forms and how the style works. From there teaching you the offensive part should be easier. Normally I wouldn't teach you in this way because you might not learn it properly, but we are pressed for time and you should be capable of refining this form later once you have a feel for it."

Anko dropped into the forms ready stance and Naruto did his best to copy. Punch to the side. _Whap. _Kick to the side. _Whap._ Punch to the stomach. _Whap. _Anko was holding back of course but It probably still hurt a lot. Soon enough the boy began to block her strikes, only occasionally needing Anko to correct something. Naruto watched her studiously, trying to memorize and mimic the style she was using. It wasn't much but it was a start.

* * *

When Kurenai returned with two Dictionaries and showed the two clones how to use them proficiently, problems seemed to solve themselves. One of the reading clones would spell a word out, one of the dictionary clones would find it, and give the pronunciation as well as the definition. They became there own think tank and would only rarely need Kurenai to help with words. Leaving Kurenai free to explain complex concepts when one of the clones would ask about it.

He really was a bright kid, able and willing to learn. He just needed a helping hand, a jump start so to speak. Sure Kurenai would have loved to attribute his already significant progress to her teaching abilities, but really anyone could have taught the kid. No one had, no one had ever given the kid a chance to learn, The academy teacher, Iruka and Kakashi as well had probably just assumed he was too stupid or just not interested in learning. They were wrong on both accounts.

The kid was driven, far more driven then any of her students. He had probably been so far behind in his studies by the time he got to Iruka he just seemed like a hopeless case. Progress was slow but they moved through the books at a steady pace. Kurenai knew that the child wouldn't remember all of the things discussed in the book, but It should make a significant impact on his knowledge base. Plus he was reading each of the books twice. There were really only four books there two copies of each of the following: _'Genjutsu Guide', 'Leaf Ninja's Handbook', 'Taijutsu: the Basics', _and _' Ninjutsu Theory' _which was the curriculum for the final year at the academy.

If Naruto recognized the books he didn't show it. _'he's probably never seen them' _Kurenai thought bitterly. How could anyone justify intentionally hinder such an enthusiastic kid, sure he might be a bit annoying, but he was kind enough if you got to know him. His social quirks were no doubt due to his isolation as a child.

The water walking group was doing well too, nearly mastered at this point. Once they all dispelled there combined experience would leave Naruto with the ability to do the exercise without even thinking about it.

Kurenai checked her watch twelve exactly. "alright" she addressed the group with the books. "mark your pages" she told them. "when I point at you dispel." All clones nodded understanding and she began to slowly point at each clone as they began systematically dispelling themselves.

* * *

Anko had just finished with the taijutsu training, and was leading Naruto back to Kurenai when...

"wh- ahaaaa" ku-thunk _'huh so thats what happens when you dispell long term clones.' _Anko thought waiting for the kid to get back up. She had just got done explaining that they were taking a lunch break when he fell _'In retrospect maybe we should have told him about the memory transfer abilities of his shadow clones, oh well.' _Anko wasn't all that concerned.

When they met up with Kurenai they were presented with food Kurenai had just picked up from one of her favorite market shops. Naruto began asking Kurenai question after question about the many different things ranging from shadow clones to histories of different clans, which Kurenai answered and expanded on, before moving on to a different subject.

They finished lunch by about half past twelve and quickly returned to their training Naruto beginning his physical training while his clones returned to reading and doing control refining exercisers. Business as usual.

When three o'clock rolled around Naruto was sweaty and tired. After saying goodbye to his senseis he had decided to go cool down at the hot springs

* * *

Jiraiya was not what you would call a decent man, names like: pervert, drunk, greedy, and asshole often found their way to being used on him. Rather then being ashamed of this Jiraiya was proud of his way of life. He was rich, powerful and had a following large enough to rival that of the Uchiha fanclub, though his was unfortunately comprised mostly of middle age men, he tried not to dwell on that part. He had done many a notable deed such as: fighting Hanzo of the salamander, training the fourth Hokage, and catching a glimpse of Tsunade's glorious gigantic gourds. Though the last one had nearly gotten him killed, he thought it was worth it.

Jiraiya however was not used to being called out by such a small squirt, one small squirt had ruined a whole day on pee- ahem researching ideas for his next book.

"you pervert!" the squirt screamed just loud enough to grab the attention of the women inside the bath house. Who were immediately on guard, some were moving for the changing room intent on finding said said pervert.

"You damned kid do you know how much research you just cost me!" He turned to see the fun-sized Minato Namikaze, albeit with shorter hair and whisker possession marks.

"you-your Jiraiya of the sanin!" the chibi Minato said amazed, but if Jiraiya was expecting praise for his prestige he was dead wrong. The squirt grinned "Train me Jiraiya or I'll make your life miserable"

_'The gall of upstarts these days' _He grabbed the child his clothes. "Kid you think you can threaten me? The great Jiraiya! The sage of Mount Myoboku!"The kid was threatening him! he shook the kid by his clothes, but was greatly surprised when the child ran through three hand seals, just three. They were:

_Dog _

_Boar_

_Ram_

_poof _

Jiraiya regained his bearings through the thick smoke, when the smoke dissipated he could see he was holding a young girl, by the front of her ripped and savagely torn blouse. Jiraiya had but a moment to take in what he saw, however he'd gotten quite good at judging the form of a girl and memorizing it. The girl-no young woman, he corrected himself, in front of him wore her hair in pigtails. Her blouse was snow white and was torn just enough for him to get a glimpse at those massive melons which were just barely inside of a believable size range, guarded by a lacy, sexy pink bra which was on full display.

The sage's brain came back when tears started streaming down the girl's face and she began daintily struggling to get away from him. Jiraiya recovered quickly, but not quickly enough. Women, some kunoichi some civilian, barreled around the corner of the building, a righteous furry in their eyes. _'OHHHH SHIIIIIIT.'_ was all Jiraiya had time to think before his world exploded in pain, 'hell hath no furry' they say.

Several of the women keeled down around Naruto to check if he was okay, Naruto felt like 'she' was suffocating but did 'her' best to act tearful. One of the women offered 'her' their coat, which he gladly accepted. He felt weirdly exposed, even though most of the time he took this form he was felt so violated, even though it was a henge, It wasn't all that hard to fake the tears. Naruto sat there for s while waiting for a chance to escape. Naruto never got that chance.

'her' blood ran cold when she caught sight of her academy classmate, said classmate knew all about Naruto's 'henge' and wouldn't be fooled for a second. _'OOOOH SHIT' _Naruto thought. Ino's face changed from a grimace to a reassuring smile as she moved in nearer to Naruto, her body language told the others that they knew each other. To all the world she would have appeared a concerned friend, except her eyes, however, they told the true story. Ino's eyes were cold and promised a slow death if Naruto didn't have a good explanation.

"Naru-chan sweetie, are you okay?" Ino asked. She was a surprisingly good actress. "Let's get you home, okay? We'll get you cleaned up, okay?" Ino took Naruto's delicate hand and lead her gently away from the crowd.

When they were out of sight and in a secluded side street Ino began her rant. "you just can't keep yourself out of trouble, can you Naruto?" Ino asked exasperated. Naruto shook his head no, and Ino continued. "alright lets hear it then!"

Naruto complied Immediately pouring out his heart and soul to his fellow, and very irate, blonde. Naruto fearing for his life rambled on and on and on... and on and on incoherently about the past week including the prelims and second exam his training and finally what he had been doing five minuets before she showed up.

Ino, for her part, realized Naruto was in shock, and pulled him into a comforting hug. "shhhh, shhhh it's fine Naruto, your fine." she held the hug for a moment before releasing him. "you'll think twice the next time you go to use that henge of yours now won't you Naruto?" Naruto nodded tearfully, he felt so dirty, and he didn't know why.

"Come on Naruto loose the henge, and also you owe me dinner for saving your ass." Naruto grimaced there weren't many places that would serve him, and any that would weren't places that Ino would consider decent.

"Ino don't you think I should stay henged, otherwise..." _'come on brain work faster' _"someone might mistakenly think we were dating..." _'perfect!' _"do you really want that kind of thing getting back to Sasuke?"

Ino contemplated this unusual comment. _'Is he worried forehead will think we're dating?' _but no that couldn't be it maybe he was actually afraid it would ruin her chances with Sasuke, double no Naruto didn't give a rat's behind about that. Maybe he just didn't like her... _'what the heck does forehead have that I don't?' _"It's fine Naruto, it's not a date, friends go out to eat all the time."

"Are we friends, Ino. Do you really consider us friends." Naruto looked so hopeful.

_'__He_ _acts like he's never had a friend before' _"Sure, Naruto were friends. We aren't exactly besties, but you're my friend all the same. Now loose the henge, I need some food!" Naruto's apprehensive look returned.

"Ino, I should probably stay henged...Because I still have quite the reputation as a prankster and most places don't let me in." Naruto half-lied

_'His pranks were top notch evil, but not letting him in the door is a little __extreme_"Naruto, we'll go to the restaurant me Shika and choji frequent, I'll vouch for you. They'll have to let you in cuz they'd loose too much business if choji stopped coming!" Naruto grinned at the joke and, hoping beyond hope She was right changed out of his sexy jutsu and followed Ino to her teams hang out. Neither one of them saw the elusive shadow that followed them.

"Fine kid you got there, …... Minato"

* * *

Naruto was enjoying this meal at the restaurant Ino loved. The place had begrudgingly let him in when Ino had threatened to tell Asuma-sensei about denial of serves. When Ino asked about what he really did to piss everyone off, Naruto dodged the question and she let the subject drop. They talked a little as Naruto looked through the menu. Naruto was loving spending time with his new friend more and more until a certain old man walked up to them.

" Scoot over kid" The old man said to Naruto. Ino was livid.

"Well, well, well if it isn't pervaiya of the sanin." Naruto said nastily.

"Get out of here you old pervert!" Ino added, backing up her fellow blonde.

"Cool your jets kids, dinners on me." Jiraiya said, moving his hands in a placating motion. Both blondes perked up at that, having one of the more costly dishes at Jiraiya's expense sounded like a good opportunity to pay him back for the trouble he caused. little did they know that Jiraiya was filthy rich from his extremely popular Icha Icha series, nothing this place could serve would make a dent in his pocketbook. Naruto ordered a high class steak and Ino ordered seafood dish, Jiraiya settled for a glass of sake.

"Why are you here?" Naruto asked once they had finished eating.

" Well I just came to let you know that training starts at four each day from now till the finals." Naruto didn't seem so excited about training with Jiraiya anymore.

"You're gonna train under one of the sanin!" Ino cried out.

"That's right, this kid here," he ruffled Naruto's hair "is ready for the big time!"

"You old pervert, if you harm one hair on his head I'll kill you!"

"ooh, feisty." Jiraiya handed Naruto a wad of cash that was clearly far too much for the dinner they just ate, And with that Jiraiya was gone. Naruto counted out the money he owed. He said his goodbyes too Ino and headed home, He had a lot to think about.

* * *

**Man that was longer then expected, also I think I just watched two moths doin the nasty in my room. (there, that's a nice mental image ain't it?) Any who, now that we've covered Naruto's training regime, I can focus more on social interactions and things 'should' move faster after this. (unless you think I'm rushing this, if so tell me) I would like to point out that this story has not been outlined, I just make things up as I go along. (keeps things more interesting for me) I take notes of certain Ideas but that's it. Thanks for reading!  
**


	5. Day three: Part One

Begin Day Three: Part 1

It was lunch time all three had gathered in training ground 13, the day had gone mostly the same as yesterday. They were training him in chakra control, taijutsu as well as continuing with studying with the books. In addition they were starting Naruto's sixth sense ability, by blindfolding him during taijutsu as was recommended by the book Kurenai had read.

She looked curiously at Naruto who had tried, and failed, to nonchalantly ask her about Jiraiya of the sannin. Naruto asked her about him a few times asking about what he was like, and generally doing a good job passing things off like he never met Jiraiya. He was betrayed only by the nickname he had almost used when he began asking Kurenai about him, 'Pervaiya'. Kurenai thought this name was apt. The man was indeed known as a world class pervert, and those books he wrights, disgusting. If Jiraiya hadn't composed those accursed books maybe Kakashi would have had a little time to put into Naruto's training. Thank kami Naruto didn't think about that, it would probably be pretty depressing to know that a perverted book was more important then you.

"Do you think Jiraiya would hold a grudge?" That jarred Kurenai from her thoughts, _'uh oh'_

"Naruto! What did you do?!" Kurenai yelled in fright. Naruto coward in fear of being punched. Poor kid was afraid of her, probably a reaction created based on his interaction with that Haruno fangirl. Anko shot her a glare and she forced herself to calm down, scaring the boy further would be counter productive, if she could find out what had transpired then she might be able to apologize for him. "Naruto?" Kurenai asked this time soothingly, trying to get the boy to ease his guard around his head. "would you please tell me about your meeting with Jiraiya?" there that was better.

Naruto brought his arms down from around his head, slowly looking up at his sensei. She wasn't mad at him? Wasn't going to hurt him? Naruto felt so lucky, for to him it seemed he had found the greatest sensei ever. "Well..." Naruto collected his thoughts. "I was going to the hot springs the other day and I was disgusted to see..." Naruto launched into his tale from the previous night, all his thoughts and feeling every inner thought laid bare to these two people whom he trusted implicitly, if they decided to throw him off a cliff he'd let them. Well maybe not that, but the trust was there nonetheless.

"I felt really exposed and dirty, and violated when I transformed and Jiraiya looked at me...is that normal?" Naruto asked. Anko promptly shoved the dango stick she was eating into her mouth stabbing herself in the throat in the process. _'Normal? No definitely not normal, in fact that's very not normal. I've felt the feeling he's described, but...that shouldn't happen to someone in a henge...maybe'_

" The feeling you describe is one many women have to deal with, especially when they are being manhandled and stared at like a piece of meat. Its odd that you fell this way given nothing he saw was actually yours, however you mentioned you tend to take that form a lot?" Anko asked. Kurenai thought the world was coming to an end. Anko saying something intelligent even the thought of that was odd to Kurenai, like saying an unusually large child climbed through a ant hill. It was just odd. Not that she thought Anko was dumb, far from it, Anko was probably one of the more intelligent people she knew, she just never showed it. Maybe she didn't want to intimidate others, well intimidate them more, with her brains. Which might make social interaction easier for her. She was one of the village pariah after all.

"yeah, It's umm the only way I get a good deal on things, or get quality products and food that isn't expired. Why do you ask" Naruto said, and Anko could relate. The difference was she was a grown shinobi before she became an outcast, she knew how to make people see things her way. Naruto however didn't and wouldn't do such things even if he knew how, he was too nice. So Naruto had been abused by the village not just physically and mentally but also economically. Anko hated herself in that moment. She should have been there for him, as the only one who knew what it was like to be hated by the entire populace of Konoha.

"Well, if you spend a lot of time in that henge, then you could be suffering from some type of identity disorder. In other words, you could be attached and protective of the 'dignity' of your henged form, the way you are of your normal form." Anko looked extremely uncomfortable with the current direction of the conversation. Naruto as well looked very disquieted. So Kurenai decided it was time to step in.

"Have you used the sexy jutsu for it's original purpose lately?" Kurenai inquired. Which basically translated to 'have you used the form naked lately?'.

"Well no, I haven't really had a need for it since...uh...the academy." Naruto stated trying to remember. He had graduated a few months ago that was plenty of time to...

"Well Naruto it seems you have spent so much time in that henge you have grown consciences of your transformed body. Like when a toddler begins to realize it shouldn't be naked, you have decided you shouldn't be naked. It's a most interesting development." Kurenai said student trying not to let the concern leek into her facial expressions. That would only worry him.

They switched to a less heavy topic, before returning to training. Naruto ending up sweaty bruised and panting slightly. His hair was drenched and flattened against his skull reaching down to his chin. When they said their goodbyes to go their separate ways Anko handed Naruto a small notebook and told him to give it to Jiraiya directly. When Naruto agreed to do so they all parted ways and Naruto set out to visit a friend in the hospital. He still had an hour to kill after all

* * *

Lee felt pretty terrible at the moment his shinobi career was finished. Not a glimmer of hope was left in the world. Lee knew it was very unyouthful of him but he began to sulk and be generally gloomy. The doctor had said he wouldn't be discharged for at least a week. A week in a boring white room was so unyouthful. Lee had just laid down to nap for a spell. When a slight knock and the opening of the door had caught his attention. Naruto tip toed in to check if bushy brows was asleep seeing that he wasn't Naruto called out a greating.

"Hey bushy brows! Whats up!" Lee was not going to answer that question for obvious reasons.

"Naruto! Hello how are you!" Naruto smiled.

"I'm doing quite well Lee thanks for asking." Naruto's face sobered. "But I was here to ask you that question, what was the verdict." Lee's feature's darkened visibly, and nothing was said for a long time. "That bad huh"

Lee nodded numbly. Naruto stayed with Lee for forty-five minuets telling him about what was going on and different pranks he used to pull. Several stories gaining a smile from the depressed taijutsu specialist. Just before leaving Naruto asked Lee about his condition once more.

"They don't think I will recover, they believe I will be crippled for life. My life as a shinobi is over." Lee sighed " The only person knowledgeable enough to preform the needed surgery is Tsunade of the sannin and the chances of her coming to Konoha are slim to none. Even so a doctor told me even Tsunade may not be able to preform a surgery this complex..." Naruto got a determined look in his eyes.

"Lee, when the chunin exams are over I will request a mission to go find Tsunade and bring her back here, and if she can't do it then I will train until I am skilled enough to do so! I promise this to you on my Ninja way!" Lee looked thankful, it was the thought that count after all.

"Thank you Naruto, I'll hold you to that promise." Lee wasn't convinced but he was happy all the same. Even if he didn't think he would succeed he knew that Naruto would try his damnedest. Lee had been encouraged and his youthful feeling returned and that alone was worth it's weight in gold. Well not literally as youthful feelings didn't have a weight.

* * *

It was time Naruto headed to the hot spring he had first met Jiraiya at. Jiraiya hadn't specified a meeting place so it was the logical choice. He wondered about the package he carried with him, he really wanted to open it but it might be personal, and Naruto didn't want to betray his beloved sensei's trust. He'd learn about it eventually if it concerned him.

Naruto would learn of it, and far sooner then he thought. The good and the bad.

End Day Three: Part 1

**yeah I got roped into doing work for my aunt during time I had allotted for this chapter It's not as long as I wanted but Whatever. I'll try to do a longer one tomorrow, but I still have some homework. There will be an update tomorrow none the less. If you guys would like me to do longer chapters I can just let me know. This would also mean less frequent updates. I know that the story may seem slow right now but it'll pick up soon. Review and let me know what your thoughts are. **

**PS: I decided to replace Pervy sage with Pervaiya for no reason in particular**

** Thanks for reading!**


	6. Day Three: Part Two

Day three: Part Two

Jiraiya waited for fifteen minuets in his favorite training ground, absolutely pissed. He told the kid to train with him and Naruto blows him off. God that kid was getting on his nerves. Jiraiya stood to leave when he realized. _'I didn't tell him where to meet me'_ Jiraiya mentally berated his own stupidity. The kid probably thought Jiraiya had played a joke on him. Oh well he'd just have to buy him something to apologize. Maybe a copy of his latest book. Jiraiya grimaced. _'No NO no, sensei would have my head for that.'_ It took a full thirty more minuets to find the young ninja, sitting with his knees tucked under his chin up against the wall of the bath house they met at.

"Kid!" Naruto looked up. "Sorry 'bout the wait, I didn't know where you were. I forgot to tell you where to meet me so..." Naruto stood up, and started stretching, his back arching like a cat's, his arms moving at angles Jiraiya didn't know was possible. _'Damn, that's amazing flexibility. Probably the fox's doing.'_ Jiraiya pondered the fox's affect on Naruto's development arbitrarily. It didn't really matter. When the kid still hadn't responded to him in words Jiraiya got a bit worried. "Your not mad at me are you..."

Naruto regarded him carefully, studying his features before deciding Jiraiya was being honest. "No, I have Kakashi Hatake as a jonin instructor so I'm used to waiting. As long as you're a more involved teacher then I don't care." Jiraiya got the distinct impression that being like Kakashi would be a bad thing in the child's eyes.

"About that kid, most of my training is me pointing you in the right direction. I believe strongly that a student must figure the specifics of the training out themselves..." Jiraiya scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "To learn something for yourself is a future proof training style. I ask you to do something and you figure out how to do it. I will give you hints, but I won't all ways be around. You need to learn to solve problems for yourself." Jiraiya explained.

"Whatever, pointing me in the right direction is far more then Kakashi ever did." Naruto said darkly. Jiraiya could believe that, Kakashi wasn't the wrong ninja to be a jonin instructor. The guy was emotionally disturbed from what happened to his own team.

" Anko-sensei told me to give this to you, she said it was important." Naruto added holding out the small notebook. Anko-sensei huh that was interesting. So the kid already had someone other that Kakashi training him. Probably more questions about the cursed seal. He thought Anko had given up on that. Jiraiya had tried his damnedest to remove the thing, but nothing worked. Jiraiya hated that seal, hated that he didn't understand it, he hated that It baffled and confused him.

Jiraiya accepted the notebook. "alright kid follow me, time to do some training!" Jiraiya jumped up to the nearby roof top, Naruto hot on his heels.

* * *

"Okay Naruto what do you want to learn?" Jiraiya was running our of options. He wanted to give Naruto something generic to start off. Test his learning speed, and gauge his cognitive and physical skills. To jiraiya's distress however Naruto had learned water walking along with other basic chakra exercises, and refused to do taijutsu sparring. He wanted to make sure he didn't give Naruto more then he could master in one month. _'Well he's Minato's kid, he's bound to be able to handle himself.' _

"Well, I'm working on taijutsu with Anko-sensei, and I have no affinity for genjutsu so..." Naruto trailed off hinting that he wished to learn ninjutsu. All ninja were hesitant to share ninjutsu, they were private techniques and if the person you taught turned missing-nin or themselves taught the wrong person, who knew when your techniques might be used against you. More wars were lost this way then anything else, they were ninja after all paranoia was part of the job description. Jiraiya however wasn't concerned, this was minato's kid, he owed him twelve years worth of secrets. _'no affinity for genjutsu huh? Interesting wording... affinity...' _

"Alright Naruto we're gonna test your natural affinity!" Jiraiya reached into his bag muttering something along the lines of 'In here somewhere...' and 'I think I have some' finally he pulled out a piece of paper that was about 3 by 6. "This is a very Important and expensive item, that will help you a lot in your ninja career." Jiraiya announced handing the paper to Naruto.

"Jiraiya, this is a piece of paper, this is**paper**!" Naruto exclaimed shaking the paper at Jiraiya.

Jiraiya grabbed Naruto's hand to stop it from shaking the paper at him, and began to make placating hand motions with his other hand. "Shush Naruto! I'm sorry for his rudeness he doesn't know your power." Jiraiya added to the paper, faking insanity. "Naruto this is a special type of chakra conductive paper meant to test your chakra's elemental affinity. This will give me an Idea of what ninjutsu you will pick up the easiest. Simply channel a small portion of your chakra into it and you'll see what I mean." The word 'Ninjutsu' sobered Naruto up and he quickly complied with the orders.

The paper glowed blue, then split in half, after that one side tore itself to shreds while the other became damp before it also tore it's self to shreds. " I think you may have used a little to much chakra..." Jiraiya crouched looked at the remains of the paper. It was a formality, but it made him look more impressive to the kid. " Wind affinity, with a minor water affinity. Unfortunately our nature types don't co inside, mine are fire and earth and therefor most of my ninjutsu are of those chakra nature..."

Jiraiya paused for a long while, something in the man's expression told him Jiraiya was thinking. "your fighting the Hyuuga, correct?" When Naruto nodded affirmative, Jiraiya grinned widely _'I am a genius' _" I happen to know a technique that will be very useful against the Hyuuga. It's a combination technique of water and earth, It's called **Swamp of the underworld**"

"But I thought you said I could only do water and wind?"

"No I said you have an affinity for them, if you have the affinity which corresponds with the jutsu you want to use it will make it easier to learn and also make it stronger when you use it. As it is you have one of the affinities needed so it shouldn't be out of your reach." Jiraiya said placating the worries of his young protege. It would take longer than learning a jutsu of a similar rank from his wind affinity but it would work.

"Why this technique" Naruto asked, it was a fair question so Jiraiya answered.

"The Hyuuga use a technique called **Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven** which protects them from most head on physical attacks using my technique while they are using revolving heaven should cause them to cork screw into the ground." Jiraiya went on to explain the hand signs and how to use the technique. When Naruto got a feel for the Jutsu Jiraiya sat down nearby while he practiced, watching the genin trying to get the jutsu down.

* * *

Jiraiya wasn't sure when exactly he began reading the booklet, all he knew was that he was totally absorbed. Could it be true? Could Anko's theory work? Oh Kami it was too good to be true! There were small mistakes in the seals formula, the idea was sound.

Jiraiya looked over the hastily scrawled messages in the notebook. Anko began the notebook by saying she had observed that a small part of the seal which resided on Naruto's stomach, was unnecessary piece which didn't keep the fox at bay. Most would have written it off as a mistake, but _**no **_the fourth didn't make mistakes, not in sealing anyways. Anko knew that the small and seemingly insignificant scribble on the boys seal had to have some purpose, so she researched it. That's where things got really weird. The small scribble turned out to be used to hold chakra and a copy of someones consciousness, the _fourth's _ consciousness, as expected the rest of the book was covered in ramblings about the cursed seal, but mainly the seals ability to transform the chakra of the target into the chakra of the one who applied it. Apparently the fourths consciousness was in there but he couldn't maintain himself with the amount of chakra he had in there with him, and would only be able to manifest for a few moments. Anko proposed that a modified version of the cursed seal be applied to Naruto to siphon off convert and store chakra for the fourth. This would in theory allow him to manifest himself in Naruto's head indefinitely. It also had a cleverly written fail safe to send the fourth into hibernation should he pass a certain threshold.

Jiraiya set the book down. There was a lot of problems to think of mainly, the parts of the cursed seal that they didn't understand. What if they left off a necessary part, or inputted one of the more corrupted parts. Jiraiya stored the book in his back pocket. Promising himself to talk to his former teammate's apprentice later. It was late, eight o'clock at least.

The sannin redirected his attention to his young pupil. He made progress, but the jutsu was still not at the point where it would be affective. So far Naruto had gotten a large muddy puddle. No worries though, Jiraiya predicted the child would need at least five days to learn it to the point he could use it properly on an area the size of the Hyuuga sphere. What Naruto needed now was rest. Not that the kid would agree...

"Naruto we're done for the day, you should go home. We'll pick it up again tomorrow" Jiraiya said concisely, before turning to leave.

"But I haven't mastered it yet!" the petulant child complained.

"Rome wasn't built in a day kid, things like these take time." Jiraiya said before making his way towards Konoha proper. If he was lucky he might catch a snake, a friendly one hopefully.

* * *

The village was mostly quite this time of night, respectable civilian retired to their home for the evening. Most respectable ninja as well were in their homes, if they weren't on duty. Luckily for Jiraiya tonight happened to be the night Anko was to hit the bar with some of the other jonin of Konoha. By the time he found her it was nine o'clock, plenty of time to get wasted. Luck smiled twice on Jiraiya this night as Kurenai had accompanied Anko tonight to prevent a hangover tomorrow. When Jiraiya walked into the bar the place went quite.

Jiraiya was an imposing and frighteningly respected Ninja, even a bunch of shitfaced jonin knew not to mess with him. Jiraiya put a lot of time and effort into destroying his reputation, both here and elsewhere. He acted goofy in public and gained a reputation as a pervert partly to make himself less imposing. It worked everywhere but Konoha. In Konoha he was known respected, exalted, and feared. This made information gathering in Konoha impossible, what idiot would tell secrets to someone who frightened them?

Jiraiya quickly found Anko in a corner stall with Kurenai and Ibiki. All three remarkable sober. Jiraiya sat in the empty seat next to Ibiki. The bustle in the bar returned when he sat down, shitfaced jonin did know not to mess with him, but that wasn't to say they had a very good memory.

"Hello" Kurenai said wearily.

"Hello" Jiraiya returned the greeting.

"So you found my research interesting I assume." Anko said smirking

"Hit the nail on the head." Jiraiya responded. "If you aren't completely drunk, I want you to accompany me somewhere more private." Anko complied and followed him out of the bar and across the town the Hokage's mansion, more specifically into the personal library of the Hokage.

"Alright what do you need?" Anko asked irritably.

"we are going over all of this, everything, down to the tiniest marking." Jiraiya ordered firmly.

"Tonight?!" Anko exclaimed.

"Yeah, Tonight. Everything. Right now!" Jiraiya responded.

"The damned seals not going anywhere! Can't this wait?"

"No, we're doing it now, I want to have a proposal written for the third by tomorrow."

"We can't do all that work in one night!" Anko yelled

" We can and we WILL! That seal you described isn't stable, we need to do this immediately, I've already wasted twelve years of time to work on this. Sooner the better! Maybe doing this will help us understand more of the cursed seal, or better yet, maybe the fourth knows something!" That got Anko's attention, if anything motivated her it was the notion of getting Orochimaru's taint off of her. Oh well, here goes another all nighter , thank Kami she stalked up on soldier pills.

End Day three

* * *

**So there you have it, another chapter done. Couple of things I should touch on.**

**1 I know that Jiraiya's jutsu is earth release, but the stuff is mud sooo, there must be some water mixed into it.**

**2 Minato's seal lasts until the pein fight but Jiraiya doesn't know that.**

**3 I gave Naruto a water affinity cuz I can, no complicated reason. **

**Leave a comment if you have any questions or ideas!**

**So yeah, that's all for today.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	7. Day Four: Part One

Begin Day Four: Part One

Light shone through the tiny window into the Hokage's library, and onto the table where a dozen coffee cups lay scattered. It was 7 A.M. and Anko knew Kurenai would be pissed at her for making her do the training herself. That was fine though, the only thing Anko wanted to think about right now was sleep. Damn she was tired, and the alcohol she consumed the night previous certainly hadn't helped. They were done though even ran some tests with a shadow clone and a small animal, they did all they could to make sure that the seal would work. Not that that meant it would, that just means they tried their best. _'It will probably kill the brat' _she paused to consider he thought _'Man I'm a pessimist' _she concluded. Anko staggered out of the tower and left her partner in crime to do the rest of the work.

Jiraiya headed to the thirds office to submit his proposal, knowing full well his sensei would be apposed to the idea. He would just have to make the man see reason, Minato was in there somewhere.

Jiraiya approached the door to his sensei's office, the secretary saw him and moved into the office to notify the third immediately. Jiraiya waited no more then twenty seconds before the secretary came scurrying back out to motion him in.

"Jiraiya, hello, how nice of you to stop in now. You know like you were supposed to when you got here." Hiruzen said. Despite his words the man wore a grin on his face. Jiraiya took on a sheepish look, rubbing the back of his head slowly.

"How'd you know?" Jiraiya inquired of his Sensei.

"I heard reports of a, quote 'old pervert', assaulting a young girl at a nearby hot spring. If the words old pervert are used in a report like that it usually means you're nearby." Hiruzen's face held a calm rage. "Normally I'd ask if you wish to oppose these claims, but said young girl has not shown up again for testimony."

"Hey that was, for once, not my fault! It wasn't even a girl! It was Naruto in a henge trying to blackmail me!" Jiraiya defended himself. "Though it did feel pretty real..."

"Jiraiya! Don't tell me you've fallen so low as to molest your own godson." Hiruzen said mockingly, that kind of thing was most definitely Naruto's style.

"And now we get to why I'm here, I have a report I want you to go over..." Jiraiya shoved the folder into his sensei's hands. " I'm not taking no for an answer."

Hiruzen opened the folder and began to read it. His face contorting in confusion before a serious expression formed on his face.

* * *

Naruto walked away from the day's training with Kurenai. A decided tired Anko had shown up at eight to tell him his training time with Jiraiya had been pushed back to five, Naruto wasn't sure how Anko knew this and he didn't ask the woman looked so tired that he didn't want to bother her. This left Naruto two hours to do what ever.

Naruto walked slowly towards a grass covered hill overlooking part of Konoha. This was Shikamaru and Choji's old hangout, he'd been here more then once with them, Kiba usually in tow. They spent time there when they skipped school, and maybe if he was lucky...

"Choji! Shikamaru! Hows it going!" Naruto called to his fellow genin. A tuft of brown hair moved and shifted while the tuft of black hair remained still. "Is Shikamaru asleep again?" Naruto asked more quietly.

"How could anyone sleep with that noise you make."The black tuft exhaled loudly "troublesome" The Nara replied, sitting up and looking at his friend. "New clothes, huh?" The Nara looked at him sadly he'd seen that jacket once, and couldn't imagine _why_ Naruto would wear it, all of those horrible things written in it. Worse still those words were openly used to describe him in the streets and even some of the other kids in their then academy class had taken up the torch from there elders. It made Shikamaru sick, and the only way to fix being sick was to sleep of course, which was pretty much Shikamaru's strategy for everything.

"Nice, yeah!" Naruto agreed happily. Naruto always made him sick, his wretched enthusiasm tended to be contagious. Like back in the academy when Naruto would wake the sleeping genius with his antics and they'd wind up skipping classes together! Him, skip classes! Without that big dumb blonde friend of his the Nara estimated he would have had about 300 more hours of sleep! 300! _'mmmm sleep'_ Shikamaru plopped back into his laying position, the blonde squeezing in on his right, in between himself and Choji. That was another thing the prankster had no sense of personal boundaries, he liked to be very close, if not touching them when they lay together like this. When he had questioned Naruto about it, his face went red and he said ' you guys feel warm...'. It had taken Shikamaru a full month and a talk with his father to decipher what this meant.

_"he grew up alone Shikamaru, completely alone. All those times when I and your mother have hugged you or held you when you were scared or lonely, he never had that. I can say for sure that he's never really had any friends his age, you, Choji and that Inuzuka child are probably the first." The Nara clan head's face took on a meaningful look. "The humans craves contact with others to reassure themselves that someone else is there. During early years if we get the nurture we need, then by the time you reach a certain age you can be sated with just conversation, but not Naruto. The opposite is obviously different with Naruto. He a actively shows a need for something most don't even realize they want. He probably did it on accident the first time. It's like giving someone food after a month with none, they eat lots to make up for the month without food. Naruto just wants to feel the reassurance that another person is there, someone who is friends with him, someone to connect with. Be patient with him Shikamaru, it should pass." _

They stayed there for sometime, all looking at the sky, it was just something you do when you hang out with Shikamaru. For Shikamaru and Choji it was several agonizing minutes of feeling the rising and falling of the chest of the blonde next to them. They understood why, that didn't meant they had to like it.

"Hey look, that one looks like you Shikamaru." the Nara looked up where Naruto was pointing, it looked nothing like him.

"Naruto, that looks more like a pineapple..." Shikamaru replied. Choji and Naruto laughed.

"Well you-do kinda-look like a-pineapple." Choji said between laughs. Which renewed Naruto's laughter. How could someone who had been through so much be so happy. Shikamaru had seen the way his friend had been treated, in the streets at the park, hell even by the teachers at the academy, so why...

"There isn't anything written on those new clothes of yours is there...?" The blonde went white, and moved to try to hide his face which failed as Choji was on his other side. Shikamaru was in shock, that damn enthusiasm and get up and go that Naruto had rubbed off on him again, he Shikamaru Nara had said exactly what he thought, something he had never meant to speak of.

Naruto collected himself quickly realizing he couldn't exactly run from the question. "Nothing but the washing instructions, the stuff is clean." Naruto tried to sound casual, as if people asked him this sort of thing all the time. " you saw 'that' then?"

Shikamaru nodded slowly. An awkward silence hung in the air for what felt like forever. "Yeah I saw it." Shikamaru responded numbly, before he felt a rage build inside of him. "How could you where that Naruto?! Why would you put up with that kind of shit! Why didn't you get something else to where, why did you insist on wearing that atrocity?" Shikamaru felt angry, and confused. A new experience for him. Why didn't Naruto just get different clothes sooner. Who would do something like that to Naruto? A worse thought crossed his mind, _'did he do it himself...no surely not.'_

"Because I couldn't get anyone to sell me something in my size, so I had to make do." Shikamaru thought he was lying for a half a second before he remembered that he and Choji had witnessed what Naruto was describing. Back when they had first started the academy Naruto had gotten kicked out of a stall during the Kyuubi festival, and people had said mean things to him. Shikamaru racked his brain 'demon!' that was one and also...'murderer'. This was something he was going to have to investigate, stupid Naruto making him work again, troublesome blondes.

Slowly things had returned to normal, Naruto left a little while later. Shikamaru prepared himself for a long talk with Choji about their friend's abnormalities.

* * *

**There done, school and extracaricular activities teamed up to try and keep me from updating, but they were no match! Next chapter, the big reveal!(for Naruto anyway) **

**Thanks for reading!**


	8. Day Four: Part Two

Day four:Part Two

Naruto marched towards the training ground he uses when he trains with Jiraiya, face turned down, he wasn't sure what he should think about Shikamaru right now. Naruto knew Shikamaru was smart even if he was really lazy, he could connect the dots where Naruto himself could not. The thought of Shikamaru and by extension Choji hating his guts was not pleasant, not at all.

Jiraiya was waiting for him as expected, waiting sitting under a tree which shaded him from the setting sun. Next to him was what looked like a few cushions, an assorted brush set, as well as a mid size bottle of ink. Well Naruto assumed it was ink. Jiraiya motioned him over.

"Jiraiya-sensei whats going on?" Naruto asked hesitantly did Jiraiya have something weird planned. Naruto gritted his teeth _'if the pervert thinks I'm going to give him a back rub he's got another thing coming!' _better not to express that aloud.

"I see you've finally learned some respect! That's good kid, one must always know how to treat his betters!" Naruto rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. "I need to take a look at the seal take a seat." Jiraiya motioned to the cushions before turning to his notebook and began skimming part.

Naruto covered his stomach with his right arm protectively, and backed away slowly. He had learned from his run in with Orochimaru that people messing with his seal could be fatal for him. The genin looked at jiraiya with a mixture of hurt and confusion, did Jiraiya mean to kill him. Well he wouldn't be the first to try, but Jiraiya looked sober unlike the sixty or so other people who tried to kill him in Konoha. Something told him Jiraiya trying to kill him was a lot bigger a problem then ten drunk villagers. _'RUN' _his instincts screamed. _'bu-but this is Jiraiya, he wouldn't-, but why?' ._ Naruto had both arms wrapped around his stomach now, and his expression changed from confusion to worry. Naruto was terrified, and he thought he was a better judge of character then that. " S-sensei?" a small voice said.

Jiraiya turned to look at his godson immediately noticing a problem. Naruto was definitely spooked and was standing a good ten feet back. Jiraiya stood and moved toward Naruto. "whoa easy there kid, you won't feel a thing, promise." Jiraiya moved too grip Naruto's shoulder encouragingly, but he shied away from the man's grip.

Terror rippled through Naruto's body. _'Kind seeming promises? Check! Creepy reference to a painless death? Check! Trying to hold me still? Check!' _Naruto bolted, his speed increased by the the adrenalin pumping through his panic racked frame.

It had taken Jiraiya at least a minute to collect himself. His cute little student had headed for the hills, for no explicable reason. Before that his mind was just blank, the experience was so very far away from what he expected that his brain went into diagnostics mode. Jiraiya, still unsure of what had transpired, gave chase to Naruto.

Jiraiya caught up to him just before he entered the village proper at which point Naruto whipped out his second most notable jutsu, Shadow clones. To Naruto's terror, Jiraiya only paused for a moment before continuing after the real one. When a fight seemed inevitable Naruto turned, kunai in hand, to face his assailant.

Jiraiya stopped and stayed a respectable distance away. "What is up with you? I offer to fix your seal and you just up and leave! You made old Jiraiya feel lonely." Jiraiya pouted exaggeratedly. Tears brimmed Naruto's eyes he couldn't believe this guy was acting like his friend.

"I won't let you touch it!" Naruto screamed not lowering his kunai. He had to get away, he couldn't die before he became Hokage!

" hey, Naruto I didn't know you were that protective of it, jeez it's not gonna break so take it easy." Jiraiya was cool on the outside, but on the inside doubts crept in _'Does he talk to it, or is it expressing it's own want through his subconscious?' _bad bad bad things could be happening to the young jinjuriki, why hadn't he been around more! Jiraiya moved closer to Naruto.

"s-stay back! I won't- I- just stay away from me! I won't let someone else put a seal on me too!" Naruto retreted a half a step for each one Jiraiya took towards him. Tears dampened Naruto's face.

"Naruto I know you have had bad experiences with seals, but I'm not gonna hurt you kid." Jiraiya pleaded with Naruto.

Suspicion was scrawled across Naruto's face. "How do I know you won't?"

"you're just going to have to trust me." Jiraiya said finally closing the gap between them._ ' Naruto when did you become so jaded.' _Jiraiya gripped the boy gently on the shoulder and Naruto finally let his kunai slip down to his pouch. "I just need to do something, and I think your going to like it." Jiraiya released the boy but the boy grabbed his hand and hugged him quickly before they continued back to the place where the seal stuff was.

When they got there Naruto laid down on the cushions. "Alright Naruto I'm going to put you under for a moment, stay still this won't hurt a bit." Jiraiya then cast a genjutsu on him, one for peaceful sleep. Naruto's sleep was anything but peaceful, though not altogether unpleasant.

* * *

Naruto regained consciousness- no that wasn't it. He began existing once more, that was more apt, in a dark dreary place, a sewer. It was damp and cold. In spite of himself Naruto began shivering.

Naruto rubbed his arms with his hands. "s-so c-cold." Naruto looked around the tunnle he was in was a dead end behind him. It was bricked off yet water was still coming from there. So Naruto began walking the only direction left to him. Forward. He could see his breath as it crystallized in mid air. Naruto trudged onward for an unknown amount of time, hours, minutes, days. Naruto wasn't sure, but somehow he got the feeling it didn't matter.

He came to an open area, red cage nestled in one side. Naruto knew _what_ was in there but that didn't mean he wasn't surprised to see a red snout with bared teeth and red eyes glaring at him.

"**So**," the giant beast spoke. "**My warden has finally come for a visit, can I get my parole now?**" the fox asked sarcasm dripping from his bloodied fangs.

"no" Naruto answered simply. "you made my life a living hell, I'm not giving you a damn parole."

"**Not my fault brat, I like this arrangement about as much as you do, which is to say not at all.**" Kyuubi replied this time more conversationally, Naruto honestly felt like the fox was trying to get him to talk back. It made sense, must get awfully boring down here.

"Yeah well at least maybe you could give me some awesome supper powered techniques to pay the rent. Gaara has that sand thing, why don't I get something like that!" Naruto said, neither one of them would enjoy talking about what the Kyuubi had done, and really it didn't matter.

"**Brat, of course I gave you abilities! I am the most powerful of the demons!**" the Kyuubi bellowed in a fit.

"you gave me lots of chakra, big deal!" Naruto moved his hands in a way that demonstrated his indifference. " Can't I get some awesome abilities or something! At least Shukaku makes himself useful. Maybe it's because he's more powerful then you..." Naruto had closed his eyes and looked away, but after a while he cracked one eye open and looked back to gauge the Kyuubi's reaction.

"**How dare you imply that Idiot raccoon is stronger then me! I have a plethora of abilities I just don't want you to have them, and even then you still got one!**" The fox raged.

Naruto blinked "you gave me an ability?" This was news to him, was it something he was yet to discover, it was probably some mega awesome kage level jutsu!

"**Your shape shifting ability! You really thought that was a henge, HA HABWAHA. Nah kid that transformation into a seductress that's one of my well known abilities! You can't henge at all accept for your clothes.**"

"Well that explains why that's the only henge I can do is that." Naruto sighed figured it was something lame like that. Naruto shivered again, the cold wasn't going away, he rubbed his arms again.

"**That isn't any henge you moron, it's a shape shifting ability, you only use those hand signs of yours to change your clothes! Not to mention it makes you impossibly appealing! Even alters it's self slightly to make you more appealing based on the desires of the person looking at you! It makes you Irresistible on the target's mental level!**"

Naruto sighed again, he wanted an awesome power and all he got was the ability to look sexually appealing, and he couldn't even use it to impress the ladies... l-a-m-e LAME.

"It's no mistake that that is the ability you let slip through, is it _Kyuubi_ ?" A new voice called from the darkness. The Kyuubi growled.

"**If you wanted someone to blame for our current predicament, then you've found him kit.**"

"Fair enough." the voice responded. Out of the shadows appeared a man with chin length blonde hair blue eyes and a fairly muscled body. Konoha head band, flack jacket and a long white trench coat adorned his body. " I didn't expect to be seeing either of you again so soon." The fourth Hokage, for of course it was he, removed his trench coat and put it around the still shivering Naruto's shoulders. It was _warm_, so _warm, _he'd been cold for so long. Naruto wrapped the coat tightly around himself, grateful for the reprieve from the biting cold of the sewer.

He looked up at the man, he recognized him as his predecessor to be, but ever since he heard of what happened to the Kyuubi his feelings towards the fourth had been tainted with betrayal. Naruto couldn't bring himself to hate the man though he was doing his job, of course it could be that that was the disillusionment brought on by his lonely life.

"**Fourth Hokageeeeee!**" Kyuubi bellowed.

"what do you say we go somewhere quieter, ah Naruto?" Minato asked.

Naruto nodded and then looked at the caged beast. "Sorry Kyuubi some other time then."

"**What? NO, no, no! I still need to discuss something with you! I need to tell you about the-**" _FLASH _"**AAAAAnd he's gone, fantastic...**" the Kyuubi settled his head on his paws, preparing for another nap, oh well, there was always next year...

* * *

Naruto rubbed his eyes until they began working again, after being blinded by the flash.

He and the Hokage were in a white room of nothing, no definable walls, everything was white. It could be 10ft by 10ft or 100 by 100. Naruto couldn't tell. "where are we? In fact where were we?" Naruto asked

"well we were inside your brain. The physical manifestation of your mental state." Minato said.

"but it was so dark, and cold" Naruto said sadly "and It was so barren." Naruto looked back at the fourth. "anyways where are we now?"

The fourth smiled at him. "This is a room developed by my consciousness. As for why I'm here I put another seal on you with my chakra and consciousness, it was only supposed to trigger if the Kyuubi's chakra was to get away from you, I suppose that means the seal has collapsed before it was supposed to. It seams I've failed you yet again Naruto." Minato said sadly.

"It must have been something Pervaiya is doing, he said he needed to do something with my seal, guess he messed up. Maybe I'll never wake up."

"Peraiya huh, well it seams you know my old sensei then." Minato said "I asked him to be your godfather, but he probably had something else to do." Minato said taking the plunge, he wouldn't get another chance to tell him.

"You asked him to be my godfather?" Naruto asked more confused "why would you..."

"Because I'm your dad Naruto, That's why." Minato said, just trying to get it over with. Naruto hugged him tightly around the waist, Minato had expected anger and hatred, his own father had betrayed him to a living hell. Water soaked through his shirt which was exposed through his open flack jacket.

"I- I have a father! I knew it was a lie I-I always knew it!" Naruto sobbed into his fathers coat. "I knew they were lying, I knew it!" Naruto couldn't believe it he cried two times in one day, that was sad even for him. He was just so happy, he had a father, the people at the orphanage had always told him.

Minato placed a hand on Naruto's head, maybe this wasn't expected but that didn't mean he didn't like it. Minato gently pulled Naruto away from his body, crouching down to eye level. Concern for his only child coming to the forefront of his mind. " What did they lie to you about Naruto?" Minato asked looking into his child's eyes.

Naruto looked at his father and then down at his feet. He wrapped his hands up in his father's jacket. "They told me that freaks and demons don't have parents, they liked to tell me I was demon spawn." Naruto looked at his father a forced smile on his face. "Even if I wasn't a wanted child, I-"

"whoa whoa whoa , who said you weren't wanted? Your mom and I love you, even if we only knew each other for little while." Minato pulled Naruto into a hug. "Your mother and I wanted a child. We wanted you."

"Who was mom?" Naruto asked

"Kushina Uzumaki, you have her personality. She was the love of my life. She had red hair, and she was very powerful shinobi. She was the jinjuriki of the Kyuubi before you. Which brings me to what Kyuubi said before we left."

"about the transformation thing?"

"yes. It wasn't appearent in the previous jinjuriki as they were both female, but that ability makes you female replicating your mothers x gene, but you are umm" _'oh kami do I really want to have this conversation' _" Well you see when your mother was pregnant with you, specifically when she went into labor, the seal was weakened, and... well... umm"

"Are you trying to tell me not to get pregnant?" Naruto asked obviously enjoying his father's discomfort. "because there is this one guy from my academy class who..." Minato went red, and his face was contorted in worry.

"Look if it's what you want then, I don't care. Just promise me you'll be careful, okay don't rush into things and make sure you-"

"I was kidding dad!" Naruto cut him off.

"Okay well just remember that if you do you need someone who is skilled in sealing to keep your seal stable and-"

"DAD! I was kidding!" Naruto cut him off again

"alright. Well I'm afraid this is the last time I'll see you, but I love you Naruto." Minato smiled at his son.

"you-you're going! No you can't!" Desperation seeped into Naruto's voice as he clung to his father's waist.

"I'm afraid that the chakra reserves I had are running- uhhh" Minato confusion etched on his face

"Dad?"

"I should be fading out by now, what did you say sensei was doing to your seal?" Naruto didn't know how to respond to that. After all his worry about what Jiraiya might be trying to do he hadn't even gotten him to say what he was doing.

"I don't kno-ahh" Naruto screamed as he looked down at his hand. It had gone transparent. Naruto wasn't sure what to think. He was disappearing! "what-what's happening dad?!"

"well at this point in time I should be doing what you are now. Disappearing into nothing as my chakra fades. Maybe this won't be the last time we see each other Naruto." Minato said with a smile. "As for your disappearing well that would be you regaining consciousness. Goodbye for now, Naruto." and with that Naruto's world was enveloped in black.

* * *

Naruto awoke to see dark brown eyes and white hair looking back down at him. Naruto groaned and started to sit up Jiraiya moving out of the way.

"How'd it go kid?" Jiraiya asked him. Leaning back and sitting nearby. It was dark now, starts shown brightly in the sky. The moon was a crescent, but it supplied enough light anyway.

"It was really nice, I'm glad I met my dad, if only for a little while." Naruto tried to smile at Jiraiya, really he did, but he just felt so empty inside.

"well I'm glad you got along." Jiraiya said a mischievous look coming onto his face. "learn anything useful?"

"I-" Naruto began but stopped suddenly seemingly, to Jiraiya, for no reason.

"_What ever you do Naruto Don't tell him about your henge! He will make your life hell if you do!_"

"Dad!" Naruto screamed causing Jiraiya to look at him weirdly. Which he ignored.

"Yes I know you met your dad, I sent you to him. What I want to know is what you talked about?" Jiraiya said. Looking expectantly at Naruto. How could his pupil visit his other pupil and not give him the details.

"Dad, he's well he's talking to me right now! Some kind of mental link." Naruto said to Jiraiya excitedly words supplied by Minato. Jiraiya didn't look surprised.

"Yeah I know, what do you think I was doing! I want to know what he has to say!"

" well he" Naruto paused for a moment to listen. "He would like to inform you that, you are a genius." Naruto paused. "and now he tells me I shouldn't have said that 'cus your ego will get to big" Naruto yawned hugely his eyes drooped. "And he also says that I should go to sleep, I'm inclined to agree with him on this one." Naruto drooped to the cushions "a good godfather would carry me home wouldn't he?" Jiraiya grumbled but he picked the kid up. He was light too light, maybe a few extra trips to the ramen stands may be in order. Naruto fell asleep somewhere part of the way back to his house. He squirmed and groaned and yelled like he was being beaten, after a minute he began whispering desperately. "stop, please stop, it-it hurts please."

"Oh kami, what did they do to you kid." Jiraiya asked sadly

* * *

**Alright consider this my apology for not having 3 chapters this week as I promised prior. 3,000 word Specials will be my penance for that. So I think the part in the beginning with Jiraiya was improbable but what ever I felt like writing it. So Naruto can Talk to his dad now, and yeah... I know I had so many things to talk about here while I was writing the story but now I've forgotten oh well. **

** I hope you enjoyed **

** Thank you for reading! **


	9. Day Five: Part One

Begin Day Five:part one

"_Naruto_"

"_Naruto!_"

"_Hey Naruto, it's time to wake up!_"

"What in the hell?" Naruto said tiredly. Someone was trying to wake him up, the only people who did that were Sakura and occasionally if he slept really late Kakashi. Both had a rather hands on approach, Kakashi liked to tickle him out of his bed, while Sakura preferred to just punch him a few times.

"_Naruto! You need to get up!_"

Naruto sat up and looked around, the events of yesterday slowly came back to him. "dad?"

"_Jeez you take a while to get up!_" Minato said exasperated.

"Dad! Hey, your still here!?" Naruto exclaimed, getting up and starting his morning routine. "weren't you going to disappear or something?"

"_I believe Jiraiya has altered your seal some how_" Minato answered. "_go look at it in the mirror, I want to see it._" Naruto complied. He moved to his bathroom in front of the slightly chipped mirror, his cover up still sitting where he left it the other day on his counter. He lifted his shirt and exposed his stomach. He channeled chakra into his stomach, he forced his eyes to look at his reflection. He hated that seal, ever since the first time he saw it, he tried to pretend it wasn't there. "_I see, the seal transforms a small portion of your chakra into mine effective. It doesn't create enough to sustain me indefinitely, but when I near the end of my chakra I should go into hibernation until I have a good amount, hmm. You'll have to ask Jiraiya, but judging by the flow and the seal, I think I have 36 hours worth of chakra every five days. Along with a battery which triggers for...something, ahhh that's it adrenalin! A battery for when you get into a fight! It seems sensei was smarter then I gave him credit for!_"

"So I can talk to you every five days? What about the rest of the time, will you be, like, sleeping or something? You're not going to disappear are you?" Naruto asked, while replacing his shirt over his midriff.

"_Not anytime soon, no. I'm afraid your stuck with me!_" Minato told him happily. Naruto checked his eyes in the mirror. He looked for the tell tale signs of insomnia, once he was satisfied they weren't there he left the bathroom.

Naruto grabbed milk out of the refrigerator, he was nearly out. He was going to have to get more soon. " I wonder if there is some way I can communicate with you in my head, its going to look really weird if I talk to myself in public...like more people trying to kill me weird..." Naruto said thinking about the Kyuubi, and how people might think him to be talking to it. Naruto began to water the many plants and flowers which dot his apartment

"_Ah well right now, I am in the room with the fox looking at a viewing screen which I assume are your optical input. I'm talking to you by, hmm projecting my thoughts sort of._" Minato explained.

Naruto decided to try it out for himself "_Dad you're going to teach me some supper awesome jutsu, right?_" Naruto asked excitedly. His old man was the fourth Hokage! He had to have some supper awesome jutsu to teach him.

Minato laughed "_we'll see Naruto._"

* * *

Kurenai and Anko watched amused as Naruto staggered drunkenly towards them fifteen minutes late. You could tell by the look on his face he was somewhere else. He tripped and swayed side to side as he slowly made his way forward, happy grin never leaving his face.

"Naruto!" Kurenai called out. Naruto looked towards her causing him to loose concentration and fall.

"Watch where you're going kid!" Called Anko. " I didn't come up with that seal so you could spend all of your time daydreaming!" Anko and Kurenai walked towards Naruto who had climbed to his feet once more.

"Wait, you designed that, I thought the old pervert did!" Naruto exclaimed to Anko, his thoughts focused once more on the outside world.

"Damn straight I did!" Anko stated loudly, using her right hand to point at herself for added effect. " You think that old fool could come up with something like that on his own?"

"_No, No he couldn't, she makes a good point._" Minato added thoughtfully, dividing Naruto's attention once more.

"You're going to have to learn to multitask Naruto." said Kurenai noticing the distant look in her student's eyes.

"Sorry...about...that...sensei" Naruto regained composure. "Dad was just saying that he agrees with you, and that pervaiya could never have come up with it himself." Naruto hugged Anko around her midsection. "Thanks Anko sensei!"

Anko was taken aback, compassion was not he forte. She placed a hand atop his short blonde hair, and ruffled it a little causing it to stick up weirdly in places. "No problem kid." Naruto broke the hug.

"Here Naruto let me-" Kurenai pulled Naruto over to her and tied his headband over his eyes. "From now on I want you to train without your eye sight. We need to develop your sixth sense."

"yes sensei!" Naruto said in a nasally voice, the metal of his headband pressing on the base of his nose. Anko laughed.

"Kurenai I think we're going to have to invest in a different piece of cloth."

* * *

Training went as what Minato assumed to be normal from what Naruto had told him, taijutsu and knowledge based training. He was quite grateful to Anko and Kurenai for the time and effort they put into training his son. Minato had stayed mostly quiet during training so as not to distract Naruto. All the while the fox insisted to him that he had something to discuss with Naruto.

Now the training was done so this was a good time. "_Naruto you should come down here, the fox needs to discuss Naruto._"

"What does the fox want to discuss?"

"I don't know and he refuses to tell me, I'm afraid you'll have to come ask him..."

"...and how exactly do I do that?" Naruto asked confused.

"relax, meditate and your own mind should pull you in."

* * *

He was back standing in front of the cage, his father to his left and a little in front of him, also watching the cage. "Welcome back, Naruto."

"**Brat**" the Kyuubi acknowledged

"You wanted to talk to me fuzzball?" Naruto replied. The Kyuubi thought about yelling in outrage, but knowing this human as he did he knew it would just make the nickname stick

"**I thought you might wish to know that your fellow jinjuriki are coming here to discuss the current host of the sanbi, or three tails. You will be expected to play host as was my role in times gone by.**" the fox explained.

"people like me? All coming here? Why here? And how did you all come to an agreement when you are far away from each other?" motor mouth Naruto asked.

"**yes people like you, seven of them, everyone minus the sanbi. They are coming here as Shukaku agreed to attend if he didn't have to go too far out of his way. As for your final question, all of the nine have telepathy, it works well at a range of twenty miles, anything outside that range can only be used for basic ideas. We have agreed for the finale of the chunin exam to be the time of the meeting. That's pretty much it, Kit.**"

"Umm okay I guess I can facilitate that, if you lot are feeling sentimental." Naruto Joked cheekily.

"**Brat.**" the Kyuubi snarled. enraged by the joke.

"well thanks for the heads up I'm leaving now" And he did, allowing consciousness to draw him out of the sewer.

* * *

**this chapter felt a little weak. **

**for those of you trying to defend Kakashi, I agree with you, Kakashi didn't do anything all that wrong. Naruto really trusted him and expected him to train him and help him. So yeah Kakashi isn't a bad guy per say.**

**You may be able to tell from this chapter, but in case not, I have some crazy shit planned for the finale. You shall see!**

**After this day comes to completion I'm planning on skipping a few days between chapters and only mentioning notable things, as doing two chapters for every day of thirty days sounds pretty boring.**

**Also I remember what I ment to put in the note last time. Minato didn't witness everything that happened to Naruto as it was implied in the cannon so yeah.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	10. Day Five-Six

Day five: Part two

Naruto was getting frustrated with his training in the **Swamp of the underworld**. So far all he had been able to create was a very large mud puddle. "_Neji Hyuuga fear my muddy water, forfeit or I will splash some on you!_" Naruto projected sarcastically to which he got no answer, his father not wishing to dignify that with a response. The old sage had been of little help, preferring to ask him questions to relay to Minato, adversely to earlier Minato wold tell him the answers to say to Jiraiya. This was Minato and Jiraiya's attempt to teach the boy to multitask with someone talking in his head. The progress he made in multitasking was comperable to that he made on the jutsu Which was to say, very little.

It was almost time to call it a day, but Naruto refused to walk away without some amount of progress. It was almost nine at night. Silence fell and three more tries passed before it was broken.

"_Naruto, you need to manipulate the chakra to earth chakra, but you are trying to turn your water chakra into earth chakra. The problem with that is that you are already using water chakra in the jutsu so it leaves your body mostly unconverted. Try instead to summon and convert your wind chakra._" Minato said helpfully. The next try the ground turned to watered down mud which was a little better, but still not there. This was enough for Naruto to call it a day though.

He said his goodbye to the old pervert and relayed Minato's as well, before he trudged back to his apartment for the night.

End Day Five

* * *

Begin Day Six

Naruto glared at his open refrigerator which had maliciously decided to not have any milk for him today. Naruto grumbled and filled a glass of water up in the sink as he waited for his instant ramen to finish.

"_Naruto you need to eat something more substantial then ramen everyday..._" Minato said concerned.

"Never! Ramen has everything a growing boy needs! It's healthy and tastes really good! You and Kakashi should get off of my back! Seriously, I've only I've only had a dad for a day and a half, but already you're nagging me!" Naruto said playfully. Truthfully he loved it, having someone concerned about him.

"_Naruto I hardly think ramen is a healthy-, you know Kakashi?_" Minato asked. Naruto had one of those 'oh shit' moments, how did his dad know Kakashi. Well he was the Hokage soo...

"Yeah he's my jonin-sensei, last time I saw him he left to train the last of the Uchiha for the finals..." Naruto said offhandedly, trying not to let the spite into his voice.

The fourth was a little overwhelmed with this knew bit of information. " _Kakashi? A jonin sensei? He left? What? LAST Uchiha? Their all gone, when did that happen? Damn being out of the loop for twelve years sucks. Kakashi left you to train the last Uchiha?_"

Naruto rubbed his head soothingly to hold back a headache. " yeah Kakashi is my jonin-sensei, and the Uchiha clan was wiped out save Sasuke . Kakashi left to train him to use the sharingan. Sasuke has a tough and homicidal opponent first fight in the finals. I kind of blew up at him when he told me he couldn't train me."

"_I see, that makes sense with Kakashi being the only other person with the sharingan, had to train him. Still though he had a duty to train you, I guess he knew you'd be able to get training from someone else... _" Minato muttered. It didn't sound like Kakashi to leave a comrade behind.

"Yeah he called in a favor to get me training, problem was there was some bad blood between me and him. Looking back on it, there was no way Kakashi could have known about that, and I didn't bother explaining. I've done far more training with Kurenai-sensei and Anko-sensei in the last five days then I did with Kakashi in the last five months any." Naruto explained. Slowly the conversation turned to a lighter subject, but Minato had his doubts about Kakashi's abilities to be a sensei.

* * *

It was twelve, Anko, Kurenai, and Naruto had broken for lunch. Somewhere during the training Minato had run out of chakra. "Kurenai-sensei could you accompany me so I can get some groceries" Naruto hated asking, but in light of recent events he didn't feel comfortable using his alter ego anymore.

"I don't get it kid, don't you use that henge of yours' for that?" Anko asked between bites of dango. Kurenai nodded agreement to this question.

"Well, it turns out it isn't a henge..." Naruto informed them, with his dad gone it wasn't so uncomfortable to talk about. "It's one of the fox's abilities, pretty well known actually. It's a shape shifting ability, like how myths say foxes are tricksters and like to seduce their targets." Kurenai's face went a bit red and Anko burst out laughing.

"OH, haha oh that is rich, kid!" Anko laughed before she plucked another dango off the stick.

"I suppose that is uh, agreeable." Kurenai said assessing her student's predicament "but that doesn't explain why I knew you were in a henge when I saw you using that jutsu."

"well apparently I only use it for my clothes... that's what it told me anyways..." Naruto responded.

"Oh well okay, I can take you, we'll cut the training off at one thirty and go get you some groceries." Not exactly what Kurenai wanted to do this afternoon, but Naruto needed her help. She really wished it wasn't necessary, but people could be fools.

"Kid you that ability of yours' would make you a great for infiltration missions." Anko said impressed.

"Not exactly the career path I want..." Naruto responded uncomfortable. " And I don't want to rely on the fox's powers."

"Just think of all the juicy subduction missions you could get!" Anko teased much to Naruto's chagrin. The boy's face went redder then a tomato.

"Anko stop it." Kurenai rebuked before looking towards Naruto "Naruto you shouldn't count out a useful technique just because of where it came from. Ninja must use every advantage they have, no matter what. However only upper chunin level shinobi get infiltration missions so don't worry about it too much yet."

"Yeah, yeah. It's just uncomfortable." Naruto responded "Now that I know it isn't a henge, it's just different..."

"Well, I'll take you for groceries this once but after that you're on your own. Your going to have to get over your stigma." Kurenai responded.

Naruto agreed that the ability would be useful but he didn't want to be dependent on the fox's power. A shinobi must use any advantage, he knew that was true. He didn't like his ability so much anymore.

"Alright sensei." Naruto complied. He would master this new ability, but not right now. Now was not the time to prepare for infiltration, now was the time to prepare for a straight up fight. After all it wasn't like he could tick Neji into thinking he was fighting the wrong person.

The three finished their lunch, and moved back to training. The cloth was replaced over Naruto's eyes. He could still only see shapes, and it was like watching a slide show with how slow the vision updated, but he was getting better. Three hundred sixty degree vision, no color just a general representation of physical objects around him. This sixth sense thing would be quite useful, what did it matter what color things were, if you could see weapons coming at you from behind it was quite an advantage. He would prefect it and be one step closer to becoming Hokage.

The remainder of the day passed as usual, he made some major progress in the **Swamp of the underworld **he had gotten it to cover a larger area. Though the consistency was still lacking, Jiraiya seemed impressed. He said something about it taking him two weeks to get to that point with the jutsu. Progress seemed slow, but he knew he could master it. The prospect of having milk in the morning allowed Naruto to drift soundly off to sleep.

End Day six

* * *

**A bit different with the set up, but writing just one day is getting kind of boring, I need to speed things up or it will take me months to finish (and it might take months anyways) so from now only days where important things happen will show up. (If you are against this tell me in the reviews!) each day will have less written for it because I'm getting tired of say "and such and such went as usual blah blah blah" It just sounds stupid. **

**Anyone else out there who is a writer, do you constantly second guess the quality of your work? Cuz I always feel like each of my chapters is worse then the last. maybe trying to pump out chapters so fast has an adverse effect on my humble writing ability.**

**I'm gonna stop rambling now.**

**anyways tell me what you think of this chapter.**

**Thanks for reading! **


	11. Day Fourteen

Days fourteen

Naruto's abilities progressed at a steady rate. By day nine he became proficient in the taijutsu forms that Anko-sensei had shown him. Once Anko had deemed him ready they began a different type of taijutsu training. Naruto was too make a bunch of clones, and have them two at a time mock spar with each other while a third watched. The third clone was tasked with finding mistakes in the forms or noting predictable attacks to avoid making in future fights. Meanwhile the real Naruto had begun physical training in earnest, which Involved push ups, sit ups, the usual, as well as Anko chasing him around the clearing with several pointy, and occasionally poisonous, objects. Needless to say Naruto was well motivated to continue running. Naruto's skill in taijutsu was blossoming, but that wasn't to say he was slacking off with his other training as the red eyed wonder could attest.

It turned out that academy level books were no match for the blonde's comprehensive abilities, and by day twelve Naruto was attacking chunin level chakra theory and set one of _"shinobi tactics"_. On day thirteen Kurenai had started to feel she wasn't doing enough to train him which led to her trying to train him in genjutsu thinking that, aided by a master maybe Naruto would be able to learn basic techniques. She happened to be dead wrong. Despite being able to do the water walking exercise the yellow haired child's chakra control was shot to hell. Kurenai decided to work more on chakra control. Naruto now attempted to suspend a kunai which was attached only by chakra to a kunai Naruto held in his hand. When he mastered that Kurenai would just add a kunai. Right now he was still on the one. The training was far more difficult then the water walking exercise, but Kurenai's hope was that once her pupil reached ten kunai he would be ready for some basic genjutsu techniques. Speaking of learning techniques...

"Congratulations my young student! You have successfully mastered the gooey ground jutsu!" Jiraiya announced, using the nickname Naruto had given the technique after a day of frustratingly little progress. Jiraiya gave the youngling a thumbs up and one of his dramatic poses. Naruto nearly fell over laughing at how ridiculous the old perv looked. "Some people have no touch for the artistic flair." Jiraiya muttered, dropping his pose.

"Alright kid," Jiraiya began in his normal voice. "I think you're ready to sign the toad summon contract." At that moment had there been any walls, Naruto would have been bouncing on them. He went wide eyed and grinned as Jiraiya produced and opened the scroll. "easy kid, calm down. I don't take kindly to rambunctious upstarts." Jiraiya said aloud. Secretly tough he was pleased at his godson's enthusiasm, at least this child appreciated his summons.

The old sage took on a serious face. "All you need to do is sign your Name in blood then place your blood covered hand print there." Jiraiya indicated the bottom space of the scroll. "After that we can begin working on the summoning jutsu." Naruto wrote his name as neatly as he could, carefully forming each character before smearing his blood all over his hand and placing it in the indicated area.

Nothing happened. Naruto had been expecting a poof of smoke, a noise, a voice, confetti...candy... something... "did it work?" his inquire hung in the air. Jiraiya stared at him dubiously.

"What were you expecting, some cake to appear or something?" Jiraiya asked eyebrow raised. Naruto went a bit red.

"y-yeah, hehe, something like that..." Naruto replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

Jiraiya sighed at his student and went back into teaching mode, running through the hand signs necessary for the jutsu. Naruto listened to every word before copying and recreating the jutsu. The results were less then stellar. A small tadpole appeared and spit a small amount of water in his face, as if to say 'you suck!'. Given the properties of toad spit it would take several showers to wash the failure off of his face. It was three tries later before Jiraiya came to the solution.

"Naruto, you wouldn't happen to be able to speak to the fox, would you?" Jiraiya asked while his right hand absently rubbed his chin.

"I think I can, yeah." Naruto responded not liking where this was going. The fox was civil with him last time, but it was still extremely intimidating to be talking to such a colossal being.

Hearing this Jiraiya indicated for him to do so, and if Jiraiya thought it would help him master this jutsu then it was worth a shot.

'_Here goes nothing._' Naruto thought sitting in a meditative position and letting his subconscious mind draw him down.

* * *

Naruto was disconcerted when he became aware of himself again to find a giant ball of fur looking at him. He wondered idly if this was going to be a recurring theme with this mind scape thing. He sure hope that it wasn't.

"**What do you want?**" Kyuubi asked him irritably

"hello again..." Naruto paused, and he thought long and hard about something. It showed on his face.

"**Something wrong human?**" The Kyuubi asked tired of the child's expression.

"Well, the ichibi is named Shukaku, right?" Naruto asked.

"**That is correct**" the Kyuubi said with a roll of his red eyes.

"do you have a name?" Naruto asked. The Kyuubi looked at him weirdly.

"**I do in fact have a name. Does not everyone?**" The large fox gave him a pointed look making it clear that Naruto should answer the question.

"yeah, everyone I know anyways..." Naruto felt a little empathy with the fox, he too had a name which people neglected to use. For much of his young life when people were forced to refer to him they would use one of the many derogatory names applied to him. He only learned what his name was when he was seven, when the old man came to talk to him. Before that he was just told that demons aren't allowed to have names, as that would only delude them into thinking they were human. "Wh-what is your name?" Naruto didn't see the trouble with asking.

"**My name is... Kurama**" Kurama told him.

"Hello Kurama! It is well,...uh nice to meet you, kinda, well not really." Naruto babbled, not really nice to meet him for obvious reasons "anyway I'm here to ask you a favor."

"**Making deals with the devil huh. Aren't you a little young for that?**" Kurama asked.

"Maybe, but I need your chakra." Naruto explained to the surprisingly hospitable Kyuubi.

"**You can have some chakra if you so wish, puny human.**" Kurama replied. The fox already knew that if Naruto asked the fourth about it next time he was up, the fourth would tell the child how to take it from him. Better this way as the child would thing him benevolent, not to mention it would save him from losing it to the child against his will.

"Thanks a bunch Kurama! You're being a lot more helpful then expected." Naruto said pleased.

The fox huffed. "**What does a measly amount of chakra matter to me. I don't care if you have it.**"

"Well it's just that, I'm the one imprisoning you right now. So I just thought you would be more hostile..." Naruto stated, confusedly.

"**Imprisoning me? I suppose, but it hardly matters. You will die eventually, be it in your youth on the battlefield or of old age in your bed. I am eternal, even three hundred of your life spans are of little importance to me. Besides it isn't like you had a choice...**" The Kyuubi lectured. This was the second time Naruto had received such a lecture. Maybe Kurama had a thing for them...

"Thanks for the help!" Naruto said before his conscious mind dragged him away from the sewers.

* * *

Naruto jolted awake "Kurama has agreed to help me with the chakra deficit." he told the nearby relaxing Jiraiya.

"Kurama, hmm? Odd name..." Jiraiya filed that away to ponder about for the rare occasion when he wasn't busy with work or...other things. "Alright well that means you can recommence your sad attempts at summoning. Maybe if the fox puts in a fair amount of chakra, you could summon Gamabunta!" Jiraiya regained his vocal enthusiasm. Summon Gamabunta on the first day ya right. A large poof of smoke went up and low and behold... "Oh shit, he is not going to be happy with me.." Jiraiya moaned.

* * *

**Poor Jiraiya... any ways you can assume that the rest of the day went as it did in the anime where Naruto has to stay on the toad boss' back and what not.**

**The kyuubi in this story mostly just doesn't give a shit, he is immortal so yeah.**

**Yeah just doing weeks now that everything is set up. So next chapter will cover days 15-21 or so. And after will be one to cover days 22-30. I have a plan for both so not to worry!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	12. Day Twenty-One-Twenty-Three

Rain fell in a steady mist towards the sleeping village of Konoha , just as it had done the night before. The cobble streets covered with a thin layer of water that ran every which way as gravity dictated. Very few people were out this time of night, most of them shinobi on duty.

As Naruto slunk though the side streets, which were already muddy from days of the unrelenting storm, he kept to the shadows provided by nearby buildings. His soaked clothes clung to his small frame and his shoes sloshed angrily as he walked.

"_Take that you stupid fox! How you liking the weather._" Naruto projected spitefully. The boy was outside right now only because the fox told him not to be. He hated that he couldn't sleep when it was raining, he was dead tired and his mind fuzzy from sleep deprivation. To make matters worse Kuranai and Anko had refused to train him today because of how exhausted he looked. Then when he went to Jiraiya, the old pervert tried to drug him to sleep. Needless to say it didn't work.

The rain picked up to a full force downpour, and Naruto opened his umbrella, a pitiful barrier to separate his soggy self from the depressing weather. He Marched slowly from side street to side street, aimlessly wandering, to force himself to stay awake, as well as pissing off the fox.

It was better than the alternative, which was him sitting at home in bed waiting for sleep to claim him. He had done that before, it was not fun. He would fall asleep when the storm let up enough and then be awakened with an uncomfortable feeling of dread once the rain started up again.

_"Naruto you're going to catch a cold..." _Minato tried to reason with his son. It was a shame they wouldn't get to talk much this time, given that Naruto could only come up with a rational thought every few minutes. Kurama lay in his cage unmoving yet Minato could tell the fox was tense. It seemed odd for the beast to be afraid of anything, but I suppose everyone had there own fear even demons. When Naruto had asked the fox about it he had simply stated that the rain "**isn't safe**" and refused to elaborate. The rain had put the fox on edge, as if the great beast may soon be fighting for his life. Minato was not sure what the danger was but had decided that if Kurama was worried about it, then it must be down right terrifying.

_Clang_

He turned his head in the direction of the noise. he almost hadn't heard it over the rain, but with the distinct sound of metal striking metal something clicked in his subconscious. Naruto snapped to attention, bringing with him all of the mental ability his overworked brain still possessed. He jumped quickly from the ground to a dumpster to the wall of a building and finally onto the roof of a nearby store.

In the distance he saw them. The one on the left held a object, a sword maybe, outstretched so that it dug shallowly into the metallic shoulder pad of the one on the right. From this distance he was unlikely to be noticed, which also meant he could tell very little about them. _'Naruto give me a closer look.'_

"right". Naruto closed his eyes and focused what he decided to call his sixth sense energy in the direction of the two figures. He couldn't tell much about the facial features or any such thing but he got the information he needed. The headband of the one on the left was indented to show a spiral and a triangle while the one on the right sported a headband indented to form a rectangle over an hourglass.

Naruto didn't know how much he could do in his current state it wasn't just his mind that was tired but his body as well. Naruto hesitated for a time, but as the battle became increasingly one-sided he knew he would have to do something. He began his charge toward the fight, concentrating his wind chakra into a Kunai, flinging it at the sand ninja. The sand ninja dodged easily his attention momentarily diverted to the oncoming form. The leaf ninja jumped back using the reprieve to it's fullest to analyze the situation.

Hayate, for of course it was he, recognized Naruto from the exams. He wanted to warn the kid to stay away, but he knew the kid didn't have a chance of escaping. Baki was to strong for him, at the rate things were going Hayate would be dead in forty five seconds. That left the sand ninja plenty of time to track the boy down, long before Naruto could get help. It seamed the were both going to die.

_Sorry kid, I wish you hadn't gotten mixed up in this..._ _Maybe I can make it up to you in the next life._

The sand ninja made some hand signs, and Naruto felt like he was getting punched in the gut. His feet fell out from under him as a concentrated gust of wind chakra hit him in the stomach, and just like that all of his tiredness returned. He slid across the roofs which were slick with water. His body fell over the edge as his hands stuck to a roof tile with chakra. But It wasn't his chakra.

Naruto stared at his hands which glowed an unearthly yellow into the dreary night. He could feel the familiar sensation of falling into his own consciousness, but this time it felt more like he was being forced out.

"_I'm taking over for a while Naruto._"

He let the feeling wash over him.

* * *

Anko made her way into the secluded wing of the hospital which, officially, no one was occupying. No natural light entered the hall where she was, various supply like paint and floor wax. This particular section had been cordoned off two weeks prior for routine maintenance, however during the last to days no work had taken place. The workers had been given two days of leave which they had probably assumed was for them to celebrate. The demon was gone.

Rounding a corner, She came upon a door, whose nameplate dubbed it b57. Anko hesitated briefly, the door was ajar meaning the doctor was likely checking on him. She knocked on the door and waited briefly before going in.

The room was bland at best with its grey walls and cold tile floor. Doctor Manabe sat at a desk in the room pawing over document, he looked up only briefly to nod a hello to Anko. The doctor was 'on vacation' as of four days ago, but the third had called in a favor from the only man he trusted with Naruto's well being.

The only other thing of note in the room was the bed upon which Naruto lay. He'd been unconscious since Hayate brought him back that night. The third ordered they both go into hiding.

To all the world Naruto Uzumaki and Hayate Gekko were dead. Cause of death unknown, bodies burned as soon as they were recovered.

Even Kurenai and Yugato had been kept out of the loop. The only reason Anko herself knew he was alive was due to the fact she had been on duty when the Anbu dragged in the sand nin Baki, whose memory was quickly altered by Inoichi before he was re released. Inoichi did some work to add memories from the time he was genjutued to sleep to where ever they were going to drop him. It was unfortunate that Inoichi couldn't remove the man's memories of Naruto, but it just could not be done. with that kind of work there was always a chance that the man's memory would come back before they sprung their trap on Orochimaru.

_Seeing the brat like this makes the plan against bastard_ _seem like a bit of a hollow victory._

She moved closer to the bed watching her young student's sleeping form. He moved in his sleep and his actions showed general discomfort bet nothing the doctor gave him seemed to help. He was curled up tightly in the fetal position, on some primal level he was attempting to shield himself from harm. That's what Manabe said anyways. The man had been the only doctor to see Naruto since the child was five. The first time, as Anko had found out from him, was when he found him in the streets several bruises and scrapes covering his young body. Manabe had seen Naruto time and again treating to the best of his ability, a inexplicable compound break in the child's left forearm, gashes, cuts, and concussion after concussion.

When Anko heard this from him she asked him for the medical records, she was horrified to receive a question in return.

'How many boxes worth do you want?'

Boxes. Boxes worth of medical records. Five of them in total. She got about halfway through box one before she stopped. Some of the entrees were just the unnecessary record of Manabe treating a skinned knee or other injuries that would usually be treated by a parent, others entrees dealt with much more sinister injuries. The only thing she took comfort in was the fact she hadn't found rape listed anywhere in the files, but that was depressing in and of itself.

A fit of coughing racked Naruto's small form, and Anko saw small droplets of red oozing out of his mouth. He'd been doing that every so often. Manabe said that it was due to internal injury caused by caustic demonic chakra. The lungs were the most heavily damaged.

What they learned from Hayate's report indicated that the fourth had directly controlled Naruto's body, though Hayate didn't know this. They deduced that the demonic chakra came either from the forth establishing control with help of the kyuubi and or the fourth using the kyuubi's chakra to supplement his limited reserves. Either way the damage to Naruto's body was substantial, and the nature of demon chakra prohibited the doctor from healing it properly. Whatever Minato had done to establish control had caused Naruto's consciousness to withdraw back on itself.

The kunoichi settled herself in a nearby seat. It was nearly night time, and time for them to move Naruto to the place he'd be staying with Hayate till the final exam. They couldn't keep this wing closed forever and Manabe assured them that Naruto was healthy enough that he should have not problem caring for him with field equipment. She reached a hand out and placed it on Naruto's side, the boy responded only by pulling his knees closer to his chest. She hated how small he was able to make himself, she hated how good he was at doing so.

* * *

**I'm back!**

**hello everyone sorry for the delay, I really don't have much an excuse other than I didn't really feel like writing(well stuff was going on but I could have still posted some) Even though I am back (and still very much alive) I won't be posting as often as before and not again till at least Tuesday as I'm working diligently and in vain on PICOCTF stuff( It's a mock hacking competition you know white hat stuff) so without further rambling lets get to my notes for the chapter.**

**one: I know the Hayate baki fight happened earlier in the month but I'm changing it to suit my own ideas(that's pretty much why fanfiction exists)**

**two: boxes of medical records** **seams a bit much even for Naruto but I couldn't think of any other way to express that he had a lot of recorded injury( but manabe recorded every injury he treated of Naruto's so it's doable and maybe sarutobi had naruto come for regular check ups that manabe detailed)**

**I need four words**

**now the chapter is over 2000 words long, **

**thanks for reading!**


	13. Day twenty-four

Day 24 start

* * *

It was cold, so very very cold. He could feel something holding his arms and legs down and away from his body. He wanted so badly to bring his limbs in towards himself. He tried feebly to pull them towards his core to help keep himself warm but to no avail. He couldn't tell if it was due to the bonds around him or if he was just unable to move. He waited and waited.

He saw someone- no- he saw something above him looking at him, the details were fuzzy and it was partially blocked by red bars. It moved it's mouth over and over in the same repetitive motions. It was probably trying to say something, but it seamed his ears didn't work either. He wanted to respond, really he did, but it was so cold and he was tired so very tired.

The motions stopped. A jolt of pure agony ran through his body. The motions began again and continued. On and on they went for-what? Minutes? Hours? Did it matter? Another jolt ran through him, it was painful. It was so painful, He wanted to cry out but his voice wouldn't respond. Again the same motions began, then pain, motions, pain. The pain didn't lessen or increase just stayed the same over and over, again and again.

The pain came again, then the motions. One time repeated. Two times three.

"**Kit nod if you can hear me." **a bored voice said. He tried to nod, but before he could the pain came back again. His cognitive functions began to return as he idly wondered if this was how it felt to be electrocuted. **"Kit nod if you can hear me." **Naruto somehow managed a nod.

"**Well It is about time!"** Kurama said loudly. Naruto winced and the fox took notice and changed his tone of voice. **"Sorry" **Kurama said quietly, his voice still gruff but contained. **" I won't trouble you with the details at this time, but I accidentally trapped you in your own mind." **Kurama waited and Naruto nodded his understanding. **"I'm gonna need you to bear with me, can you do that for me? please?"** Again a nod. The Kyuubi hated acting so nice, but it couldn't be helped. He had to wake the boy up as soon as he could, there would be a meeting soon.

"**Good... Okay I'm gonna ask you a few questions alright?"** The nod came as expected. **"Can you move any of your limbs?"** Naruto shook his head slowly and more painfully. **"can you speak?"** Naruto's mouth moved a little.

"kh" Naruto tried again "co-o" Naruto moved his mouth silently, trying to find his voice.

"C-Cold" Naruto finally said in an attempt to portray his desire to be warm.

"**I know kit, I know. We need to keep you cognitive, it will help grow your mental state so that you can assume control again." **Kyuubi stretched a little and tried to think of a good way to do so. **"Well why don't I tell you about how your father met your mother? Maybe a little about their early encounters"** Naruto nodded. He wondered how long he'd been out, and if anyone missed him.

* * *

Kakashi sneezed his snot splattering against the inside of his mask, adding to his absolute misery. He groaned and kneaded his forehead as if trying to ward off the hangover he knew was going to visit him in the morning. He was currently at a bar, getting as hammered as possible trying to forget his worries and problem. As he had been doing the night before. His student was dead. Dead like so many other people he had been close to. He'd even missed the funeral, he had been to far away to get back in time for it. He lost his shit in front of the Hokage for having the funeral without him, he had understood the need to bury him quickly and hadn't been that angry about it. He had just been so frustrated and upset and let his emotions control him.

From the left Might Guy placed a hand on his friends shoulder to get his attention and passed a tissue into his hand. There was a sullen air about Guy, something few thought possible of the man. Kakashi graciously accepted the tissue and somehow managed to maneuver his mask to cover his face and allow access for the tissue simultaneously. Guy hadn't left his side since he got back to the village. The man had been there for him when Obito died, and for Rin, and for sensei. He was worried and Kakashi knew it.

To his right Kurenai downed another glass, she two had apparently been hit pretty hard by the death of his student. When Kakashi had first seen her after getting back from his training trip she had punched him. Hard. And repeatedly. She had given him quite a beating and a lecture, but she didn't say anything that he hadn't already berated himself for on the way back. Nobody blamed him more then he blamed himself. Not that any of that mattered, now they sat side by side, comrades in mourning.

Kurenai had grown quite fond of Naruto in the short time she spent training him. She had trouble coming to grips with the fact he was dead. It didn't help that Anko had dropped off the radar, which meant no moral support. She had come to see him as a little brother and now he was gone. She had been pissed with Kakashi, but the man seemed as miserable as her. Naruto was dead, it didn't really matter anymore, and she knew that Naruto would have forgiven him, the child didn't have a mean bone in his body.

* * *

_Soft. _

_Soft and warm._

Those were the first thoughts of Naruto Uzumaki as he returned to his body. He waited a long moment just relaxing. He felt so good, like everything was right with the world. He very much wanted to stay there in a drowsy stupor forever, but his mind began to wake up.

_Soft._

_Too soft._

Where ever he was it was certainly not his bed. He had awoken somewhere other then his own bed. He thought his bed was pretty soft but this was like sleeping on air-no, it was like sleeping on a cloud...or... well it was just really soft. Softer even then the beds at the hospital that he had occasionally had the pleasure,meh... well it wasn't exactly a pleasure as it meant he was injured, but they surpassed his own be by far.

He stretched his legs out a bit, and cuddled blissfully with the pillows and pulled the blanket tight around himself. A dozen or so minutes passed like this, Everything was just so extremely soft. He realized he should be on guard, waking up in an unfamiliar place and all, but he figured that since who ever it was that put him here had gone to such trouble to make him comfortable they weren't his enemies.

At least a half an hour passed and Naruto started to feel that he should get up. The novelty of the soft bed wasn't forgotten, but dulled slightly by the need to find out where he was. He pushed his hands behind him to sit himself up and a pain grew in his chest. He dropped his arms out from under himself as he covered the raged cough. For a scarey moment he couldn't breath and he felt a sharp stinging pain in his chest. The cough passed and Naruto could breath once more. He looked numbly at the red glob in his hand. He coughed up blood. He sat up again slower this time and looked around.

He started with himself. He was wearing a set of off white, loose fitting pants, along with a pale blue shirt. The room's walls were a soft lavender. There was a closet, a dresser with a vase of flowers on it, a vanity, and a rug. It was nice if a bit bear. At least it didn't have chipped paint and beat up furniture that adorn his own apartment. Naruto searched for a recent memory that would explain him being in such a place. He had been in a fight and then...then he woke up trapped inside his mind. That was it. Why would he be here and not in his apartment or a hospital.

He slide off the bed and onto the plush purple rug, which had obviously been placed there to accommodate ones feet on cold mornings. He tiptoed over to the door and listened for anything from the other side. Satisfied that the coast was clear, he opened the door and looked out at the short hallway which contained three other doors. The one he came out of being at the end. The other end opened into a larger room which was brightly lit. This larger room was obviously the main living area, he could see a mid sized kitchen, a dining area, and a sitting area.

"About time you woke up, I was beginning to worry." A man voice said from the living area. The same guy who had been his proctor for the prelims. "Welcome back to the land of the living." The man smiled at him and then sipped something from a cup he had nearby.

Naruto moved to sit in a nearby chair, meeting this man suitably assuaged his fears of being somewhere unknown. "I'm sorry, but I don't recall your name..." Naruto let the statement hang their as the man removed the mug from his lips to talk.

"Hayate, Hayate Gekko. I proctored your preliminary fights." Hayate told him. "You saved my life."

"Oh" Naruto responded wisely. He did seem to remember joining a fight. "Where are we, and how long have I been unconscious?"

"We are in a secret training ground used by the fourth and Jiraiya. It's been altered to accommodate us in secret, a safe house of sorts." Hayate responded. "as for your other question. You have been unconscious for a little more then three days."

"Really that long, I really lost a lot of time!" Naruto exclaimed his chest expanded in the wrong way and he coughed again. " Uh.. how do you deal with that all the time?" Hayate raised an eyebrow.

"You do know I just had a cold right?" Hayate asked, smirking lightly. "I got over it while you were sleeping."

"Oh, no I assumed you had like bronchitis or something..." Naruto responded. "Three days though, That's quite a set back in my preparations for the exams." Silence settled in as Hayate contemplated how to tell the child he was dead. "Why am I here anyways? Why aren't I at home or at the hospital. I like it here and I was comfortable, don't get me wrong. I guess I'm just confused."

Well, that was a good enough lead in. "You and I were brought here in secret, after our fight with the foreign shinobi we were pronounced dead to keep the enemy from finding out we survived. As such you couldn't stay at the hospital or at home where you could be discovered."

"Whoa, Whoa back up! I'm dead?" Naruto asked jumping to his feet.

"No you are very much alive, otherwise I don't think we'd be having this conversation." Hayate responded dryly " Calm down and let me explain the situation to you."

* * *

_ba ba ba ba _

_uh uh uh uh_

_du du du du_

"**would you stop that!"**

"can't stop, gotta rock, can't beat my hip hop!"

"**please, Bee, stop before you hurt yourself"**

"Yo have heard my freaky flow, it helps us as we go, yo!" The man named bee responded.

"**Bee if you do that in front of the other Jinchuuriki I'll be a laughing stock. We have important things to talk about here. Some of the other Jinchuuriki may be in danger."**

"we'll be there any hour, we can help them with our power! Yo!"

"Please stop Bee. It's really annoying" Bee's companion pleaded.

"Fine little kitten, I'll be chill, if eight is cool I've had my fill."

"**Bee, that doesn't even make any sense..."**

"It doesn't have to, I do this so I don't feel blue, yeah"

The gate of Konoha came into view and the guards looked at them funny. "You two! State your business!" Izumo asked authoritatively.

"We are here, never fe-" Bee was cut off by a glare from his companion. There was little actual anger behind it, but that was to be expected, they were Jinchuuriki after all.

"Yugito nii and killer Bee,Jinchuuriki of Kumo." Yugito began. "We have a meeting to attend here concerning the other Jinjuriki all nine we're called to meet here as it is a central location."

Kotetsu took off to report this to the Hokage."I'm going to ask you to wait here while my comrade clears your entry with Lord Hokage."

"We have no trouble with those arrangements." Yugito stated. She smirked, Two Jinchuuriki of a foreign nation tended to get the immediate attention from a Kage. It wouldn't be long.

* * *

Naruto knew the reason but he didn't have to like it."I have to stay here until the start of the finals?"

"That is correct, we need to keep up appearances or lack their of I suppose.." Hayate responded.

"Everyone thinks I'm dead?"

"Almost everyone, Anko knows, she should be by in an hour or so." Hayate was starting to get irritated, it's not like he much liked these arrangements either.

"And I might not be able to compete in the finals?" Naruto asked again. They'd been over this already.

"Well it depends on whether or not we can find Orochimaru before the start of the exam." Hayate explained. "If we know where he is, then we can announce check mate by showing that we both survived. It may cause Orochimaru to cancel the attack, but we will already know where he is and can block him from escaping himself. Your getting paid for a B-rank by the way."

"This sucks!" Naruto said plopping down on the chair. "I don't want to stay here for a week!"

"Well you could always use that special skill of yours. With some make up, and a hair cut you would be unrecognizable." Anko offered appearing from no where.

"Anko-sensei, can you believe this! I'm stuck here for a week!" Naruto wined again, looking for his sensei to do something about it. Apparently he hadn't taken Anko's offer seriously.

"you're early Anko, your timing is still off I see." Hayate joked making reference to the first exam. He smirked at her.

Anko glared at Hayate, couldn't he drop that joke. It wasn't even that funny. "Hayate, if you don't drop it I will tell Yugao you specifically asked she be left in the dark." That shut him up, men were so easy to deal with. She turned to her cute little student. "Naruto" She sang out. "I can get you out of here."

"you can?" Naruto asked hopefully. "How?"

"I already told you, we use your special talent." Naruto's face drooped. "I got clearance from the Hokage. All I need is some measurements for clothing, then we can use some make up to cover those scars and style and cut your hair! Won't that be fun!" Anko smiled radiantly, the kind of radiant that Naruto learned meant _'you are about to be in a lot of pain'_. On the other hand, if he refused he would be in physical pain, not just a harmed ego. Also he would get to go outside.

"Can I tell my friends I'm alive?"

"No, what kind of stupid question is that?" Anko responded shortly

"Worth a shot. Okay, I agree to your terms Sensei." Better that then be stuck here, he'd go crazy.

Anko smirked. "Alright lets go get those measurements"

* * *

"And your all coming here? All nine of you?" Hiruzen asked raking his hand through his non-existent hair.

"Not all of us, no. The three tails Jinchuuriki is unable or unwilling to attend." Yugito responded, She refused to allow Bee to do the talking.

"Well I hope you enjoy your stay, don't cause any trouble." Hiruzen said. What else could you say to two jinjuriki invited to your village unbeknownst to you. Hiruzen decided he would trust them, if only for the fact they were Jinchuuriki. He felt around with his senses to ensure the room was sealed."I will tell you however, that our jinjuriki is currently pronounced dead for classified reasons. I ask you do not attempt to find him." He couldn't tell them Naruto was dead, they would know through their beasts that he was lying. " and obviously I will be having you followed."

They knew that already, it was after all stranded procedure for a hidden village. Yugito bowed and Bee did the same. "Those terms are acceptable, the meeting is scheduled for right after the final exam." She looked at Bee. "Let us take our leave."

Bee grumbled about not being allowed to talk.

* * *

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Naruto asked her sensei. She was sitting in front of a mirror at the vanity in what was apparently her room for her stay here. She brushed her shorter hair behind her shoulders. She wore her hair down to contrast her previous transformation, it came just past her shoulder blades, it was straight and not like her unruly hair in her normal form. The whisker marks concealed as promised, and her head band removed. Naruto had been fully decked out in civilian garb, tight, light blue Capri pants with a simple white shirt. Still though, she might be recognized.

"I am positive this will work, as long as you don't hang around anyone who knows you, you should be fine." Anko responded to the self conscious girl. Naruto had been uncomfortable through the entire process. Apparently to her henging up a body and clothing was very different then what they had done this evening. She was especially timid when Anko went to measure the other girl's cup size. Anko grinned, she was going to remember that for a _looong_ time.

Naruto didn't look convinced. "Does that include you sensei?" She really didn't want to go out alone looking like this. Everything was so foreign to her despite thinking it was a henge less then three weeks ago.

Anko pursed her lips. " 'fraid not kid. It would draw to much attention to you." Naruto stood and the pair left the room, and moved into the hall.

Going out didn't look nearly as appealing anymore, was it really worth looking like this just so she could take a walk. She looked around the sitting room for a second opinion. Wisely Hayate had somehow been able to make himself scarce, the place wasn't all that big but the man was nowhere to be found.

_Traitor_

She thought. That guy, whose life she save mind you, had left her at the mercy of Anko's twisted game of dress up. She sighed and accepted her fate, Anko wouldn't be happy if Naruto didn't at least go out for the rest of the day. Not to mention no training was allowed on account of the damage to her internal organs. She unconsciously folded her arms, which accentuated her breasts. It was apparently part of the 'gift' that Kurama had given her. The transformation affected her motions and physical habits. Things like walking and hand motions down to little things like what she did now. For this body was, above all else, created to attract the opposite sex. She uncrossed her arms in frustration.

_Frigging Kyuubi_

She blew at her bangs which had once again encroached on her vision. Anko had given her a lot of cash, supposedly from the Hokage, so she might as well go spend it. "I'm leaving, bye Anko-sensei!" she said cheerfully, heading out the door.

* * *

She wandered the streets idly. People all around her cleaning up from the festival. She frowned at those people. which, unbeknownst to her, looked more like an adorable pout. At around two She decided to stop for something to eat, Ichiraku's was out of the question unfortunately, so she decided to go do what she had been known to do before, get ice cream.

The place was called Frostbite, and didn't serve her as a guy. That was fine, she wouldn't want to go there as a guy. She had a dark secret her favorite item on the menu was a colorful and decorative ice cream Parfait, which was kind of embarrassing to eat as a guy.

She ordered her ice cream and sat down in a nearby booth. She ate slowly, and carefully to make sure she didn't look weird. It wasn't hard given the help of her transformation. The evening passed uneventfully, she only saw one person she knew, Sakura, who hadn't really noticed her. It seamed Anko was right.

In her wonderings Naruto happened across a flower shop. Well she was into plants and stuff, and she was currently female so she decided to stop in. What a mistake.

She entered the shop and looked around, most of the flowers were not things she would put in her apartment, but she enjoyed looking. The women offered to help her, but Naruto told her she was really just looking. Fortunately the women didn't seem upset by this. Unfortunately this was when one Ino Yamanaka showed up, sullen look on her face. She picked out some flowers and laterally bumped into Naruto. Then she looked at the other girl. "Sorry, I'm just a little out of it. Do you need help finding anything?"

"N-no I'm okay. Just looking a bit." Naruto broke out in a cold sweat. "I should really be going." Then she bolted, leaving Ino to wonder who the strange girl was. Naruto figured that was better then waiting to let something slip. It was fine she could talk to her friends after the exams. Well that is unless...well there was an invasion of an enemy nation looming over the city and they were soldiers...

Naruto shut down that train of thought she wouldn't know what to do if one of her friends died.

_Just like they don't know what to do now that I'm dead_

Now that was a gloomy thought.

She returned to the safe house at five, Anko had left just after she had, so it was just her and Hayate. Naruto changed her clothes before switching back to normal and removing the concealer on his checks. Hayate had prepared him a dinner and offered to train with him in the morning. Maybe he would survive the next week after all.

* * *

**Well yeah, that's a rap. And officially the longest chapter so far in the series(beating out day two) anyways. For those of you who wanted divine retribution on Kakashi I'm sorry. Maybe I'll do something for his reunion with Naruto. So here I've set up two possible plots for the next chapter, not sure which one I'll do, and soon we'll hit the finals. For those of you who think the whole "Naruto will still participate in the finals" thing doesn't _really_ make sense tactically, I don't think it makes an exceptional amount of sense either but otherwise I would have had to change the title so yeah.**

**Also I know that my chapters could use a bit more touching up, but it's boring to read them directly after writing them so I'm going to work on touch ups eventually(hope that doesn't make people too pissed).**

**Anywho Thanks for reading.**

**Please Review if you have any suggestions or question(really I don't mind). **

**Ps:4000 freaking words damn that's long, well long for me anyways **


	14. Day Twenty-six

Day 26 begin

* * *

"_so you can take over my body now?"_Naruto asked perplexedly, as she strolled down the streets of Konoha, hands behind her head in an unintentionally sexy way which forced her breasts out further then normal. The kyuubi had informed her that, even though she was thirteen now, her body was matured to about fifteen as anything younger then that wasn't considered 'sexy'. She was also told the age of this form would stay the same until she reached fifteen at which time it would start to age with her.

"_In theory yes, I should be able to take over without sending you catatonic." _Minato responded thoughtfully.

"_Can we wait until after the finals to test that, I don't want to chance not waking up again."_ Naruto projected hesitantly.

Minato sighed internally, his son turned daughter was convinced he and/or his friends would die. It was realistic to acknowledge this risk but not something one should dwell on. There was nothing Naruto could do after all. Problem was that Minato had no ammunition he could use to assuage such fears, so he settled for sarcasm. _"I don't exactly want to try it right now either, I don't really feel like being a fifteen year old girl. I might end up with boy trouble or something."_

"_You jerk, you think I'm having fun?"_Naruto countered in mock outrage.

"_I don't know, maybe you'd have more fun if you stopped being such a worry wort."_

_'Seriously I don't care what you do as long as you stop being unhappy like this...'_Minato thought numbly.

Just then a yell came from a nearby dango stand "you Can't do that Kakashi, don't you have any idea what it might do to your psyche? You barely came out of you last tour with out commuting suicide!" Guy yelled at his rival and best friend. The gray haired man next to him winced.

"Must you say such things so loud Guy?" Kakashi asked. It wasn't like he wanted the whole village to know that the well respected jonin had almost gone the way of his father. "I'll be fine Guy really. I've already cleared the transfer of my remaining team members with Ebisu. All that's left to do is to get permission from the third.

"_Kakashi...no..." _Minato projected mournfully, such words couldn't be true about his young student._ "But Kakashi would never..."_Minato thought back to his most recent memories of Kakashi. Depressed and traumatized, just barely holding on to his humanity. _'no he definitely would... and I wasn't there for him' _Minato wasn't sure if he could cry where he was, but he certainly felt like it just then.

"Excuse me G- uh , Might I ask what your interesting conversation pertains to?" Naruto asked walking into the dango shop. Kakashi responded by glaring at the young girl, Guy however was a bit more receptive.

"Ah... well, youthful young maiden, we were discussing matters that do not concern one as beautiful as yourself. Your springtime of youth is still upon you. A time for love and such?" If Naruto was up to date on his guyenes then the Jonin had just told her she was a bimbo who was to stupid to understand, and also asked her about her love life... yeah this transformation made creepy things happen.

Being fed words from her father Naruto carefully spoke once more. "Does the conversation happen to have something to do with this man's...uh" Naruto listened to the words again. "autumn of youth? His uh... time to become a red beast?" Naruto figured she'd hit the nail on the head, as three eyes widened visibly.

Guy recovered first. Seeing this young girl as a kindred spirit of sorts. "It very well might, given what happened last time. You see this man is planing on rejoining the Anbu." Now it was Naruto's turn to be surprised.

"_Kakashi rejoining the Anbu? Didn't I hear something about him already exceeding the maximum recommended tour limit."_She was positive that Kakashi had said so once, offhandedly. The tour limit represented the number of years one could spend in the Anbu without causing too much psychological damage.

Meanwhile Minato really wanted to weep for his student. He never should have placed Kakashi in his Anbu. His student now saw it as some sort away to escape his problems. Some life boat to help him escape his worries.

_Like how he escaped Rin's death or at least how he tried to_ Minato thought forlornly.

"You! Your Kakashi Hatake! Kakashi of the Sharingan! Wow so cool!" Naruto paused for a moment as if she were deep in thought. "but didn't you like, reach your tour limit or something? Wouldn't rejoining put you at high risk for psychological trauma?" Kakashi looked at her funny. The information wasn't classified or anything for the safty of the citizens of Konoha, but nobody just knew that off the top of their head.

"Maa, Maa your concern is touching, but unnecessary. I'm about as psychologically damaged as it gets." Kakashi responded dully. "Everyone I care about dies." He added the last bit more to himself as he stared down at his right hand.

Naruto slapped him hard across the face. "You may be older then I, and I may not be a ninja, but you are still far to young to be giving up hope." There was a moment of silence and Guy looked appreciative.

Kakashi glared at both of them "neither of you get it, do you?" Kakashi's gaze returned to his hand a lump formed in his throat. "Th-the blood, it won't come off, even now." Kakashi looked back up at the girl.

_'Oh god...Kakashi...why didn't you listen to me when I asked you to see a psychologist...or at least tell me you were dealing with this level of trauma'_ Minato really wished he was able to do something, but right now even Naruto couldn't act in the way Minato wanted to comfort his student. It would break his cover.

"Maa, maa. Me getting all worked up and in front a stranger too, most unlike me. By the way what was your name ma'am?" Naruto panicked for a moment the name she usually gave was 'Naru', 'Naruko' or something to that effect but that wouldn't do. Luckily she was saved by Guy.

Guy grimaced in response to Kakashi's change in demeanor, there was that mask upon mask that Kakashi was so good at creating. "Everyone gets worked up once and a while, most youthful adversary. When one is filled with such feelings they must drain them out, least they spill into your duties."

Kakashi looked up from the book he had somehow managed to retrieve from nowhere."My apologize, did you say something?" Naruto glared at him. The nerve of this guy...

"You cold hearted fool! Can't you see that you are worrying him? You can can't you? and you continue to neglect his advice and out right denounce it! This man is your friend one of a few people who bother to care about you. The way that you act it's a wonder you have friends at all, if you continue like this you may very well lose him. That makes for a very lonely existence doesn't it Kakashi." Naruto sighed catching glimpses of the carefully neutral faces of both Guy and Kakashi. "Just shoulder some responsibility and get on with your life. Running away from problems will never solve anything." Then she left. There was really nothing else to say.

* * *

Naruto walked in relative silence through the streets of Konoha, once again putting distance between herself and Kakashi. Minato was trying to sort out what to do, he still wanted to cry a bit, but he needed to put on a brave face for Naruto's sake. Naruto still needed his help, and she was someone he could directly effect.

"_Hey, Naruto I think you need to calm down. You really blew up back their, not to mention you called a lot of attention to yourself..."_Minato told his son turned daughter.

"_I don't no what to do..."_Naruto thought sadly. Sure Kakashi had kind of abandoned her training, but seeing the man so beat up just...

"_Don't worry too much about Kakashi he's tough. I don't think you have to worry about him ending up back in Anbu either, the third would have to approve it."_ Minato said in an attempt to sooth some of his...offspring's worries. The words felt hollow as he himself was still very worried about his wayward student, but Naruto seemed to believe him.

"_yeah your right, I just... I don't know if I'll get a chance to set things right with him...and...I'm the cause of his grief..."_Naruto searched her thoughts for her other worries. There were so many of them lately it was hard to find one that pertained to this particular event.

"_Naruto... death is part of being a ninja, I should know, but to allow such feelings to swallow you whole isn't a good idea. Death isn't something you can avoid. Being Hokage taught me much about death. I would hand out missions to a team where one or all of them wouldn't return. I could never fully ignore the possibility of death when I sent a team on a mission, but dwelling on it will just make you go insane. All I could do was try to make sure the team was as prepared as possible. Sure it doesn't stop all the sleepless nights, but it was my responsibility. The Hokage's responsibility, not yours. Not yet anyways. "_Minato explained as he tried to impart his views and understanding. _"Naruto you really need to take a load off, go soak at the hot springs or something..."_

"_You pervert! What the heck dad!"_ Naruto exclaimed indignantly. Her father was so empty headed sometimes.

_'It's like he forgot I'm a girl right now...'_

"_What are you talking-oh" _Minato realized his mistake._"I'm very proud of you Naruto. Jiraiya would have been in and out of so many hot springs by now..."_

Naruto blushed and thought back to the time she would have tried such a thing, but at the time he had just discovered his ability and was so very very confused.

* * *

flash back(god damn it) contextually this makes no sense skip it if you like but I wrote it so you know what I'm leaving it here.

* * *

A slightly younger Naruto stood squarely in front of his run down apartment's bathroom mirror. He'd discovered the transformation just yesterday but...

Naruto poked tentatively at different parts of his transformed body. He cupped and touched places he shouldn't know about. Places that, before today, he _didn't _know about. Of course he didn't know about, he was far too young and there was now way he could get such exposure to such things.

He had asked Iruka today if you could transform into something you had never seen before. Iruka had answered yes but... he also said that one needed a clear mental image of what they were turning into to produce a henge. Naruto was pretty certain this wasn't what he had been imagining when he transformed. Oh sure he had an idea about female physiology but so detailed and it was even slightly different then what he himself imagined at his young age.

Naruto was almost positive that the transformation was impossible. Even if he were trying to change into a girl and even if he had been concentrating on what was down **there **and even if what was down there coincided with his own notions of female anatomy, there was no way he would have come up with a texture like **that**.

Maybe he messed up he wasn't sure, but he felt somehow... he'd gotten everything spot on.

But that would be crazy right?

_'I'm just going to have to do a little research.'_

* * *

meanwhile in the office of the third Hokage:

"Wait you mean right now Naruto is walking around fully transformed? Isn't that risky? What if someone found out?" Jiraiya asked concerned, he saw this girl who looked familiar and just had a hunch.

"Anyone who, like you, comes to such a conclusion can be proven wrong be showing them that she is physically real. Also when you've just lost someone you see them everywhere. You come to understand that it is just your mind playing tricks on you." The old man took a puff from his pipe. "In your case you knew he was still alive and didn't have such feelings. Besides it's only for a few days how much trouble could he possibly-" The old man slammed his forehead onto the desk repeatedly remembering who exactly he was dealing with. "Oh shit."

"I think that sums it up nicely." Jiraiya answered with a smirk, it seems he chose the right apprentice. Sure Minato looked girly when he was younger but the boy hadn't been able to get into women hot springs and snap him some pics. Best part was Naruto would have no qualms about doing so.

_'I'll have a book done in a month with his help.'_

* * *

**Not sure why, but you people seam to be pretty interested in what I have to write which is kind of awesome! I need something to do with my free time anyways. Yep I was watching the shadow of the Anbu arc today so that's where I got the story idea. Yes I know Kakashi didn't almost commit suicide but I needed some added dramatics(sorry if it offends anyone). This was my attempt at writing a serious scene for this story. I'm so so so very sorry I put a flashback in this fic. If I do it in the future I won't announce it but I will give you a lead in and a line breaker. **

**Also I would appreciate it if someone were to get back to me if you think I should up the rating on this for this chapter...I don't know it wasn't like I went into too much detail I was intentionally vague...But some people have sensitive eyes so...**

**looking back on the chapter (now that I've given it a once over) I think my seat of my pants writing style is starting to catch up to me. I might have to actually start (ewww) planning things.**

**Any who Thanks for reading! **


	15. Day twenty-seven

The Fated Fight: Day twenty-seven

**Had this chapter most of the way finished, but realized it wasn't very good and that I should re wright it completely. **

**Attempt two go!**

* * *

The clang of steal against steel echoed through the indoor training center of the hideout. Sword and kunai clashed in an elegant, if deadly, display of skill. When the dust settled it was, of course, the seasoned jonin who had won. Naruto dusted his butt off as he stood up. It was a light work out, that he technically wasn't supposed to be doing, but it left him exhausted. Then a coughing fit came, as Hayate watched him. Oh the irony.

"I pissed off a lot of people, didn't I." Hayate voiced, it wasn't really a question. Naruto only nodded. He really hoped that his lungs healed properly before the start of the exam. It would really suck to have to stop and cough during the exam.

"Well tough shit for them, eh Naruto." Hayate joked. Naruto gave him an annoyed look.

"Shut up you jerk! That reminds me, I have a bone to pick with you! You left me to the whims of Anko's dress up game! I saved your life and then you left me to a fate worse then death." Naruto shot at Hayate, although there was no heat in his words. Hopefully he could get through the next few days by staying inside, he didn't really want to go out in that form again until the exam. He preferred being a he, thank you very much. Although the lack of glares and good prices were a plus.

Naruto heard the front door open as Hayate shot into a ready position. Hayate motioned for him to stay down as he moved to the entryway to check it out. Naruto didn't have to wait long though as a voice called back "Naruto, you have a visitor." Naruto frowned. Anko just broke in through a window, and no one else really knew he was alive as far as he could tell.

He made his way to the front door, and grimaced at the face that he found. A face which was staring at him perversely.

"_Naruto I want you to run."_Minato said calmly.

"W-what?" Naruto was so startled by the comment he actually spoke out loud.

"_I've seen this face before, and it does NOT mean good things. Trust me, that face nearly got me killed by angry kunoichi."_ Minato stated forcefully.

"_come on i-it's just Pervaiya what could possibly happen"_ Naruto inquired with forced ease.

"_Naruto I'm telling you run...why aren't you running...Know what fine, go ahead ask him what he wants. Teens these days jeez..."_Minato grumped, he supposed some lessons needed to be leaned personally, this was one.

"P- Jiraiya, what is it?" Naruto stuttered, his father's warning echoing in his brain. Jiraiya by this point was nearly drooling, and Naruto knew immediately what this was about. "I'm not some kind of circus freak! That isn't funny it's weird. I don't transform on demand so you can go ahead and go home"

"But Naru-chan,"Jiraiya purred out "Think of all the fun we can have." Naruto checked his surroundings to find Hayate was already gone.

"_Damn his cowardly ass, I saved his life!I should-"_Naruto's internal rage was cut off by the voice of reason.

"_whoa, whoa, whoa! Who saved his life? Because It defiantly wasn't you, you were taking a nap. We both know I saved all FOUR of our asses! That's right, bask in the glory of your bad ass father!"_Minato stepped in to claim fame.

"Hey those are my thoughts! Is nothing sacred anymore!" Naruto had given up on internal exchange and confronted the pervert. "you! This is your fault! The voice in my head tells me so!...that came out a lot creepier than expected..." Jiraiya didn't bat an eye. "and you didn't even hear me did you?"

* * *

"_God damn, how in the hell..?"_ Naruto asked. Holding her waterproof camera and sitting in the woman's bathhouse.

"_he's frigging persuasive when he wants to be...I told you to run..."_Minato responded.

"_are you joking? I can't outrun him! It wouldn't have mattered."_

"_you do make a good point... but you still should have run."_Minato argued. _"anyway there isn't anyone in here, thank god, just stay here and wait, otherwise Jiraiya will have you off to the next bath house faster then I can decimate Iwa." _Minato cringed at his own joke, that wasn't something he wanted to bring up.

"_So just stay here then? I suppose a soak will be nice...so long as I don't look down."_ After that Naruto did relax, she relaxed a little too much though and ended up falling asleep.

* * *

She woke up to the touch of a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see...well...what you tend to see in the bathhouse. Luckily it wasn't someone she knew, but it did mean it was time to go. She started changing, only having minor trouble putting the strange clothes on, and moved outside. Apparently Jiraiya had given up waiting for her and had gone off to...do whatever it is Jiraiyas do...

well, whatever she would definitely be prepared for the exam, she didn't have much time left.

* * *

**I think I will have Naruto eventually tentatively forgive Kakashi, mostly due to his low standards for people. Naruto pretty much considers everyone who isn't a major asshole his friend, and in the case of Sasuke... I think I've made my point.**

**This part is short and kind of plotless, I'm just letting you know that I'm ready to resume work, _and I hope to finish the finally in three parts over my winter break_.(I lied, I kind of got side tracked with kingdom hearts and tales of the abyss...) So yeah. I need to get this done as work on the sequel has already started and I really can't wait.**

**Thank you for reading!**


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